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War on drugs could be lost if funds are cut, police warn
Crime chiefs say they must assess ‘where we are’ before next budget
THE law enforcers attempting to eradicate drug-dealing from Camden Town issued politicians a stark warning on Monday that any cuts in funding could see the battle being lost.
At a two-hour debate at the town hall, the head of Camden’s police and the council’s crime czar claimed that despite figures showing an increase in drug-deals over the past two years, the heavily funded campaign was at “a tipping point” which could be lost if council cash dries up.
Listing the successes of the campaign, Camden’s senior policeman Chief Superintendent Dominic Clout said: “I think it is worth remembering what it was like in 2002 – since then we’re talking about robbery being down by half, pickpocketing down by 63 per cent. It would be my submission that we can’t take the foot off the pedal here – if we withdrew those resources, we would quickly revert.
“[Crime reduction] comes at a cost – it comes at a high level of resources. We have to be careful about reducing them.”
Camden Town’s drug market has been identified as the engine room of the borough’s crime by successive administrations at the Town Hall.
But the Lib Dem/Conservative ruling coalition seized on it as their flagship anti-crime initiative after their 2006 election, pledging £350,000 to pay for additional police on the streets in a two-year blitz on the “aggressive cannabis market”.
With six months to go, the council’s own figures show that the number of drug-deals caught on camera has actually increased, as the New Journal reported last month.
But robbery, pickpocketing and violent crime have all been slashed, and in streets where two years ago police were investigating three muggings a day, robberies are occurring at the rate of just one or two a week.
Yesterday (Wednesday) Lib Dem community safety boss Councillor James King refused to guarantee that funding for Camden Town’s extra policing would be renewed when it lapses in April.
He said: “This administration made tackling drug dealing and associated crime in Camden Town as a priority. We have had results. We now need to assess where we are – we’ll need to decide what that means for our next budget.”
At Monday’s meeting of the Camden Community and Police Consultative Group, council crime chief and former borough head police officer Tony Brooks said: “[The level of drug deals] is one of the very few targets we didn’t achieve.
“But when you take all the things we have done together we have clearly had an impact. Two out of three ain’t bad.”
Camden High Street’s businesses were also represented by Simon Pitkeathley, head of Camden Town Unlimited, who praised the police efforts.
He said: “I’m still offered drugs – I’m the only person in Camden High Street wearing a suit and I’m still offered drugs – but it used to be three or four times as you walked up the street. Now it is once or twice a week – and that makes a real difference. We’re in a very different place now.”
And Sergeant Roger Smith, who has been leading the Camden Town force since the campaign began, celebrated the 111 Asbos that have been issued in the area since 2004.
Although the meeting showed broad community support for the police efforts, Eleanor Botwright, from the Castlehaven Association, voiced concern that change had yet to reassure older people.
She said: “People who we work with now who used to shop along the High Street won’t even walk there now.” |
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