Crackdown on booze crime

Police will be clamping down on youth drinking and alcohol-related violence this weekend.

Officers will be speaking to door staff at town centre bars in Blackpool today and monitoring taxi ranks in the resort tomorrow.

Leaflets and posters will be distributed around Blackpool, St Annes and Lytham, while neighbourhood policing teams will be challenging under-age drinkers in a bid to identify bars selling to minors.

The operation comes as Lancashire Police urges young drinkers to cut back on the booze to avoid becoming a crime statistic. Almost three-quarters of assaults requiring medical treatment in Lancashire are alcohol-related.

And officers want to persuade youngsters to stay off the bottle this month.

Supt Samuel Mackenzie, Lancashire’s strategic lead for alcohol, said: “The damage alcohol does to communities, and the impact it has on police resources, cannot be underestimated.

“Drunkenness is a big problem, and we all need to do more to address this issue, one thing that would really help is people taking responsibility for themselves on a night out.”

“If you drink excessively, you are more likely to end up becoming involved in crime – either as a victim or as the offender. That’s not a risk worth taking on a night out – it could have a lasting impact.”

Alcohol costs emergency services in the county around £634m a year, and accounts for 10 per cent of all crime.

People who have been drinking excessively are more likely to become a victim of crime, be injured or be involved in violence, police  say.

This weekend, officers will be out on the streets at violence “hot spots”, where they will tackle binge drinking by issuing warnings to those heavily under the influence of alcohol, with some being asked to leave the town centre.

Supt Mackenzie called for residents to take responsibility for their drinking. He added: “The level of social tolerance for excessive drinking is unhelpful, and it is considered normal to be so drunk that people are not in control of themselves.

“This not only puts people at increased risk of harm, but it puts an enormous burden on police and health services, and affects the service we offer to all our communities.”