Police forces across Scotland will be targeting alcohol-fuelled violence and disorder throughout September. Police have launched a four-week crackdown on alcohol to reduce violence on the streets of Scotland.

The booze blitz is part of the on-going Safer Scotland anti-violence campaign. Alcohol and the links with violence is an issue that affects every community in Scotland from major cities to rural areas.

For the next month, police are aiming to reduce the amount of alcohol getting into the hands of under 18s and to highlight the dangers of agent purchase (where adults knowingly buy alcohol on behalf of young people). Posters are being distributed to off licences to highlight the campaign, while officers will be visiting schools and distributing leaflets on the dangers of alcohol at under-18s discos. Officers will also be targeting street drinking - both under and over 18s - using local byelaws.

Chief Constable Ian Latimer, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland said:
“The links between alcohol and violence are well documented. Figures show that alcohol is a factor in many behavioural crimes, such as domestic violence, disorder and assault. On many occasions, alcohol-fuelled disorder will spill over into violence, which can cause fear and alarm in our communities.
“We are committed to tackling this issue and making the streets of Scotland safer for everyone.”

A major focus of the offensive is to cut off the supply of alcohol to under-18s by targeting those who illegally supply drink to under-age youngsters.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, head of the Violence Reduction Unit, said:
“Anyone caught can expect to be dealt with severely as we want to send out a clear message that such behaviour is totally unacceptable.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Carnochan added: “There is no denying that we have a real issue in the west of Scotland with knife crime – the so-called ‘booze and blades’ culture.

“This culture of violence and weapons’ carrying is prevalent in many of our hard-pressed communities. Large numbers of young men in these communities think it’s acceptable to carry and use a knife. However, they aren’t your stereotypical binge drinkers. They can’t afford to go into the city centre on a Saturday night and spend £3 on a bottle of beer.

“The binge drinkers you tend to see staggering around the streets at the weekend are more likely to become a victim of crime as they are more vulnerable, or they are more likely to engage in low level disorder.

“Our real issue is the gangs of young men aged between 14 to 21, who are on the periphery of society. They tend to congregate in their own areas and rather than binge drink, they club together and share a few bottles of strong wine or lager.

“If one group of young men then come across a similar group from another area, they’ve both been drinking and are carrying weapons, then the chance of violence increases.
“We need to educate young men about the dangers of carrying weapons and we need to restrict their access to alcohol. However, we need to be realistic and this could take generations to change attitudes to violence and alcohol consumption.”

Police are working closely with Alcohol Focus Scotland, the British Institute of Innkeepers and the Scottish Licensed Trade Association. Individual forces are also working in partnership with local licensing forums, trading standards and Dialogue Youth teams.

Jack Law, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, is backing the campaign, he said:
“We welcome this police campaign to raise awareness of the problems caused by under-age and street drinking, and to crackdown on licensees who don’t take their legal and social responsibilities seriously.

“Those involved in under-age and street drinking pose a danger to themselves and others as they risk becoming caught up in disorder and violence. This behaviour also has very visible negative impacts on local communities. We hope this initiative gets the message across that supplying alcohol to under-18’s is illegal, dangerous, and will not be tolerated.”
Janet Hood is Head of the British Institute of Inn Keepers (BII Scotland) has been working closely with the Safer Scotland team, she added:

“BII Scotland, the professional body for the licensed retail sector, is delighted to recognise and commend the Safer Scotland initiative. This type of initiative helps licensees meet their legal requirements and combined with BIIAB qualifications help ensure that licensees work to ensure a flourishing tourist and internal trade to the benefit of Scotland as a whole.”

As part of the four-week initiative, the Safer Scotland unit has funded and distributed ‘Alco-dip’ kits to the eight Scottish forces. The kits comprise of a single test strip in a sealed sachet and a small plastic cup. The purpose of these kits is to enable officers to take action against both under-age drinkers and street drinkers where people are found to be drinking from containers that are not labelled as containing alcohol.
Sergeant Derek Simpson from the Safer Scotland co-ordination unit, explained:
“Officers routinely find groups of people – mainly young people – congregating and drinking from a container, usually a fizzy drink bottle. However, officers have no way of telling if it contains alcohol.
“The Alco-dip test kits give a simple positive or negative indication whether there is alcohol in the liquid. They are not designed to give an accurate indication of the strength of alcohol, however, from an evidential point of view the Alco-dip test kit provides an officer with reasonable grounds to suspect that a person is in possession of alcohol or consuming alcohol.”