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Police should target troublesome drunks, A&E boss says Police should target troublesome drunks, A&E boss says
(about 7 hours later)
Police should crack down on binge drinking to stop hospital staff becoming distracted by disorderly drunks, a leading doctor has said. Police should crack down on binge drinking to stop hospital staff being distracted by disorderly drunks, a leading doctor has said.
Dr Clifford Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said a "softer approach" adopted by police "doesn't seem to be working". Dr Clifford Mann, president of the College of Emergency Medicine, said the "softer approach" used for anti-social drunkenness did not seem to be working.
A&E staff have to deal with disorderly patients on a "daily" basis, he added. Police could instead increase arrests, convictions and fines, he suggested.
Dr Mann said police could deal with anti-social drunkenness with increased arrests, convictions and fines. Police Federation chair Steve White said the police force did not have the resources for such an approach.
Speaking to the BBC, Dr Mann said intoxicated patients could be arrested for being drunk and disorderly if they cause problems in hospitals. 'Wasting resources'
"All I am saying at the moment is the softer approach - where we don't any longer arrest many people for being drunk and disorderly - certainly doesn't seem to be working," he said. Crime prevention minister Lynne Featherstone said the government was "determined to tackle alcohol-fuelled harm", which she said cost society around £21bn a year.
Dr Mann said the number of people arriving at A&E units while drunk was increasing year on year, while the number of licensed premises in the UK was also increasing and alcohol was getting cheaper. The coalition had improved the powers available to the police and licensing authorities to tackle alcohol-related crime, and had banned the "worst cases of very cheap and harmful alcohol sales", the Liberal Democrat MP said.
"I think these people, by the nature of the disorder, they are distracting medical and nursing staff from looking after other patients and therefore are wasting public resources. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Mann said: "All I am saying at the moment is the softer approach - where we don't any longer arrest many people for being drunk and disorderly - certainly doesn't seem to be working."
"I think they therefore fall into the category of being drunk and disorderly in their behaviour and the police can act to take them away," he added. He said the number of people arriving at A&E units while drunk was increasing year on year, while the number of licensed premises in the UK was also increasing and alcohol was getting cheaper.
'Too simplistic' "I think these people, by the nature of the disorder, they are distracting medical and nursing staff from looking after other patients and therefore are wasting public resources," he said.
In a separate interview with the Observer, Dr Mann said that if more people knew that if they got drunk they would be arrested, then fewer would drink too much in the first place. "I think they therefore fall into the category of being drunk and disorderly in their behaviour and the police can act to take them away."
There is "far too much acceptance" that drunkenness is "normal for a Friday or Saturday night", he said, adding: "It's not normal. It shouldn't be normal." Matter for education?
Responding to Dr Mann, the Police Federation of England and Wales told the Observer the suggestion was "simplistic" and would lead to an unrealistic drain on police time. But Mr White told the BBC that cuts to the police force had left 16,000 fewer officers in the country so a "zero tolerance" policy was impossible.
"Forces up and down the country regularly have campaigns to tackle drunk and disorderly behaviour," the chairman of the Police Federation - which represents rank and file officers - Steve White said. He said police were also frustrated with having to deal with drunk people, and cells were already full with people in similar conditions every Friday and Saturday night.
"Alcohol is well known to be a contributory factor in incidents of disorder but it is a complex issue and a crackdown on troublesome drunks is too simplistic an answer," he added. He added that courts, social services, ambulances and the government all had a role to play in reducing the number of people getting drunk and disorderly - and not solely the police.
He said "hauling people through the courts isn't always the answer either".
"That takes valuable time and resources to process, not just for the police, but also as people go through the courts and criminal justice system."