National Tackling Drugs Week: Three-pronged approach to war on drugs

Jun 10 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IN the third of a series of features for National Tackling Drugs Week, reporter Sam Casey speaks to the police about their work to combat drug crime in Kirklees.

“ARE we winning the war on drugs? It’s very hard to say. It’s an ongoing battle. We are doing all we possibly can.”

That is the honest assessment by Detective Chief Inspector David Knopwood, the strategic leader on drugs policing in the Kirklees division of West Yorkshire Police.

There are no clear statistics about the proportion of crime that is drug-related.

But the Home Office suggests about 75% of crack and heroin users commit crime to feed their habit.

Faced with that fact, DCI Knopwood has a huge task on his hands.

He divides police work on drugs into three strands: education, diversion and enforcement.

“When it comes to education, it’s about winning hearts and minds,” he says.

“We are going into schools to talk to them, but that takes a long time to percolate through and clearly there are problems we have to deal with now.”

Diversion is about persuading users to invest their time in activities that will help them stay off drugs and out of the criminal justice system.

Those who refuse to do so face the full force of the law.

Tackling Drugs Week is an opportunity for the police to showcase the work that they undertake on a weekly basis all year round.

They have been executing drugs warrants on suspected suppliers and providing what they call a reassuring presence in areas that require it.

Thanks to the Proceeds of Crime Act, the police can hit criminals where it really hurts – in their pockets.

This week officers have been showing off a Lamborghini super car confiscated from a suspected dealer.