What issues concerned you most in your area
At the PACT meeting in October 2009 you told us that you have some concerns about problems caused by people drinking in the City Centre on weekday evenings.
Although the policing of the City Centre at weekends is effective, you felt that the night time economy mid-week was sometimes just as disruptive. This related to there not being the visible police presence on the streets mid-week, and also in relation to some of the bars and clubs running drinks promotions which you felt encouraged irresponsible drinking.
At the PACT meeting in November 2009 you were pleased to hear that we were working on the issue from October, but felt that we needed to keep on working hard if we were to find a lasting solution.
- Licensing officers within the SNA are going to be visiting and working with some of the bars and clubs, especially focusing on mid-week activities.
- Test purchasing operations are being planned in relation to bars and clubs, in order to ensure that customers are not being admitted or served when drunk.
- We will ensure that there is a more visible police presence on the streets in the evenings mid-week.
Update 29th October:
- We have increased the number of officers working shifts through the late evening and night, on high visibility patrols in vans and also on foot.
- 4 people have been arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour on week nights since this priority was set.
- Licensing officers have begun to attend at bars and nightclubs wearing head-cameras, in order to gather evidence of excessive drunkeness or disorder, which can then be used as evidence in proceedings to review the licenses of those venues.
Update 13th November
- 22 arrests for drunk & disorderly have been made in the last month.
- Officers have visited a number of premises which we have received specific complaints about noise and anti-social behaviour.
Update 24th November
- This issue was renewed as a PACT priority.
- We told the PACT meeting of a new pilot scheme in Sheffield City Centre aimed at the increased use of Fixed Penalty Tickets, which impose an £80 fine on disorderly drinkers. They will be served along with a form giving a legally enforceable direction to leave the area for the night. The aim of this is to catch people at the start of the night, before they go on to cause bigger problems later on.
- We are planning to extend the current public order policing strategy for the city centre from just Friday and Saturday nights to also include thursday and Sunday nights. This will lead to an increased number of highly visible, dedicated officers on the streets at the times you want to see them there.
Update 11th December
- Officers have been on duty at during the week for the last fortnight. In that time 21 individuals have been dealt with for drunk & disorderly, most by means of a penalty ticket. A further 8 people have been fined £80 for urinating in public and another four people have been arrested for alcohol-related offences.
- Officers continue to liaise closely with licensed premises and monitor any emerging issues at specific locations.
Update 16th December
- At the Pact Meeting on 15th December we agreed to keep mid week drinking as a priority due to the busy festive period and operations that we have already planned to carry out in response to your concerns.
- We will continue to update you regularly on our progress.
Update 6th January
- Over the festive season safer neighbourhood officers have been working from 3pm to 3am to tackle drunken and disorderly behaviour.
- PCSOs have worked with officers to engage with party-goers, offer advice and identify individuals who may have presented problems later due to the amount of drink they had consumed.
- Where necessary officers used powers to force drunk individuals to leave the city centre and not return within 24 hours to prevent them from commiting crime or anti-social behaviour.
- In total the operation to tackle rowdy drinkers resulted in 85 prisoners and over 100 fixed penalty notices being issued.
- Both members of the public and licensees have fedback positively on the early interventions taken by officers which has resulted in a dramatic drop in violent crime when compared to the same time last year.
Update 19th January
- At the PACT meeting we discussed how working practices had changed as a result of you raising mid-week drinking as an issue. Safer neighbourhood staff will be routinely working late during the week to tackle this matter. We suggested that in light of the work we had carried out that this no longer needed to be a PACT priority. You agreed to this but we gave assurances that we would regularly feed back on results.
Your next PACT meeting is on 19th January, 6:30pm at The Quaker Meeting House, St James Road.