31. Written evidence from Paul Flynn MP
The committee's decision to visit Gwent as part
of their investigation into police is welcomed.
As an elected representative of parts of Newport
for the past 33 years, I have long admired the splendid work of
Heddlu Gwent Police. Under five Chief Constables they have maintained
an extremely high level of service.
However, they are a number of current issues
of concern:
— The disparity of treatment between
urban and rural areas;
— The expectation of deteriorating
outcomes from the new ward manager system.
It was heartening to hear a warm tribute paid
to the Kaleidoscope project in Newport by a senior police officer
at a recent briefing. Having followed at first hand previous work
to reduce drugs use, harm and crime, I am convinced that the harm
reduction approach of Kaleidoscope has had a greater beneficial
effect than many years of police activity or the work of the Gwent
DAAT.
While it is a criticism of the lawmakers rather
than the police, the result of a strict imposition of irrational
drugs laws often increases drugs problem. Often, success is failure.
The arrest of a Newport gang of heroin addicts was hailed as a
triumph. The immediate result was new chaos to the disordered
lives of local addicts. Their sources of supply disappeared ovenight;
there was a swift increase in the price on the reduced supplies
on the streets. Addicts had to commit more crimes to raise the
price of the drugs. The availability of well established market
of heroin of known strength and purity was interrupted. It is
likely that lives were lost in the period that immediately followed
the arrests and the collapse of the reliable market. New suppliers
from Bristol, Birmingham and London filled the vacuum. There was
a vital difference. The new pushers were armed and reputed to
be more vicious and unscrupulous than the long established Newport
gang. They present a greater threat to law and order than their
predecessors. In London a few years ago, exactly the same process
occurred. The arrest of more than 20 heroin pushers in one area
of London opened the doors to new armed gangs who still dominate
with turf wars and frequent killings that are now an inescapable
part of London life.
There is an increasing disparity between police
standards and activity between rural and urban areas. This is
largely the product of persistent, powerful lobbying from the
rural area, principally in the area known locally as the Abergavenny
Triangle. A new police chief in Gwent told me that all the pressures
he received in his first month in the job came from rural interests.
A telling comment was made by a Gwent police officer at a briefing
for MPs. He said that conduct that was acceptable in a certain
part of urban Newport would require police intervention in rural
Tintern. Two standards of policing operate to the disadvantage
of the urban areas of the valleys towns and Newport. All wards
are to be treated equally in the establishment of the new ward
managers. This discriminates against the urban areas because crime
levels are three times higher in urban wards. Even allowing for
rural sparsity factors one manager per ward unjustly denies urban
areas a fair share of police manpower.
A hilarious episode involving a dozen of my
constituents is significant. A group of ramblers from Caerleon
were arrested on the way to the Brecon Beacons caught in the act
of feeding ducks. In spite of their protests they were bundled
into police vehicles and kept in custody for several hours. Their
solicitor subsequently said the police go a bit potty when a hunt
is held. Ramblers were suspected of being hunt saboteurs on the
basis of no evidence whatsoever. The police paid each of the ramblers'
compensation of £2,000. It is hoped that the police behave
with similar diligence in enforcing the Hunting Act.
Operation Tarian is based on the view that firm
policing plus anti drugs education and treatment will reduce drug
use and drug crime. This is the policy followed by all British
Governments since 1971. The result has perversely been a continuous
increase in drugs use, crime and deaths. While no sensible judgement
can yet be made on the effectiveness of Operation Tarian, its
value should be independently audited. The opportunity should
not be missed to test the value of prohibition representing by
Tarian and the harm reduction approach represented by Kaleidoscope.
The latter is confined to a small area of that covered by Tarian.
The cost of Tarian is £500,000 of additional funding. The
results of an audit would be very informative for future policy
drafting. A pioneering project is proposed for Cardiff that will
use a "safe-injecting" bus. The group promoting this
is a pioneering one that has achieved great things in their practical
aid to those with alcohol problems. It is reported that they have
the support of some local MPs and the police. I would urge the
committee to consider encouraging this life saving venture.
The previous Gwent Chief Constable said that
Ward Managers will reduce the effectiveness of the Gwent Force.
DAATs were established with high hopes that "coordination
and consultation with all parties concerned" would bring
about a reduction in drug harm. Little or nothing was achieved
except a wasteful new bureaucracy with countless meetings and
reports published. Drug use and drug deaths have continued to
increase relentlessly. Bundling up many failed policies creates
not a successful one but a larger failure.
When the previous Chief Constable contacted
Gwent MPs about his proposal for ward mangers combined with new
committees, I replied:
The main effect will be to take away your officers
from their duties for no useful purpose.
Happily there was only one DAAT in Gwent, which
was set up with similar high hopes but few, if any beneficial
outcomes. Your proposal to set up 133 committees that will have
to be attended by Police Officers and presumably serviced by Police
personnel in preparing reports and minutes. What estimate you
have made of the necessary working hours to undertake this task?
Past experience suggests that the time required would be enormous.
The meetings themselves would occupy a great amount of time, but
the travel, preparation, and follow up would multiply the time
by a factor of at least four. This would seem to be an enormous
additional burden on the Police that will lead to changes that
are of questionable value, and possibly of no value. On the basis
of your present proposal of at least bi-monthly meetings in the
133 wards there would be a minimum of 3,192 meetings per year
For the Newport West MP that would be an additional 288 meetings
a year to attend.
The new Chief Constable of Gwent has inherited
these plans which he may amend. If not, they may drain vital police
resources from frontline service. There have been welcome reductions
in crime levels. It would be wrong to suggest that the rise and
fall of crime is attributable entirely to the actions of the police.
In the same way that the rise in crime during the 1980s would
be more accurately attributed to the great increase in unemployment
in those days, so the recent fall in crime is related in great
part to the decrease in unemployment.
Perhaps the committee would consider calling
for:
— An audit of the outcome of Operation
Tarian, Kaleidoscope and the proposed "injecting bus"
in Cardiff.
— An assessment of the priorities for
urban and rural policing.
— Monitoring of the results of the
introduction of ward managers and neighbourhood committees on
police efficiency.
10 January 2005
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