Project Hammered - safer drinking safer streets

Many towns and cities, including Manchester, Cardiff, and Nottingham, have schemes, funded by the Home Office, to deal with the problems of drunken violence in their centres at night. One such programme operates in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria where it has met with considerable success. Here Alison Crewdson, describes how it works.

Think of Cumbria and sleepy mountains and beautiful lakes may spring to mind. The county is overwhelmingly rural, with a population of just under half a million. Violent crime seems out of place.

Project Hammered has been established since January 2001 and is concerned solely with the reduction of alcohol related violent crime. The strong links between violence and the use of alcohol, drugs, or both is well documented. We have received funding from the Home Office to implement a partnership approach to tackling the problems associated with alcohol related violence throughout the county. The partners include Cumbria Constabulary, local authorities, the Probation Service, Victim Support, and Turning Point.

My rôle in the team has been to assist in the implementation of preventative measures in the south of the county as well as provide education on safe drinking to local schools. The emphasis has been on establishing self-sustaining projects which will continue after the project has finished later this year. Our aim is to secure funding or ensure other agencies maintain the initiatives at the end of the project.

One of the project's main successes to date has been to reduce violence associated with licensed premises. Barrow in Furness, where 14.4 per cent of the county's population live, enjoys a lively nighttime economy with around 3.000 people visiting the town's many pubs, clubs, and café bars. This generates as much revenue as the daytime economy. During the evening activities, the streets are managed by bouncers and local police.

Project Hammered funded the establishment of a Bar Watch scheme which allows all establishments to communicate with each other via a radio link. Potential troublemakers are identified early in the evening and this information is shared with all members and the police through the CCTV control room. The scheme, which now has seventy members, also involves members agreeing to ban individuals who commit violence or drug related crimes from all their premises. There is a clear message amongst the towns' licensees: BEHAVE OR BE BANNED.

The prospect of having a ban placed on you is a powerful deterrent and the town has seen a significant reduction in the number of violent incidents associated with alcohol. Whereas Barrow's streets such as Cornwallis Street, locally known as the Gaza strip, were once featured in documentaries depicting scenes of dreadful violence, they now feature in crime prevention documentaries.

We have established a sound partnership between the police, local authority, and licensees in the Bar Watch scheme. The scheme is self-regulatory, which avoids some of the complications caused by the Human Rights Act. We have so far successfully excluded nearly twenty people for incidents of violence and suspicion of drugs.

The scheme has received additional funding from the Community Safety Partnership to combat drugs in licensed premises. The £8,000 has been used to employ a private drug sniffer dog which patrols the pubs, clubs, and café bars on busy evenings. If the dog indicates that anyone has used or been in contact with illegal drugs, they are refused entry for that night only. Each weekend approximately twenty five people are identified by the dog as potential drug carriers and subsequently refused entrance. The police will follow up some of the individuals and they recently recovered heroin from one individual.

The scheme has been so successful that it is used as a model of good practice for other schemes around the county. By the end of the project, every town in Cumbria will have a Bar Watch scheme. We have also been chosen to receive an award from the Laurel pub company for social responsibility and will find out whether we have gold, silver, or bronze at a ceremony to be held at the Savoy Hotel in March, 2002.

We also piloted a nighttime warden scheme for six months. Former licensees were employed to assess the nighttime environment and highlight any hot spots which might trigger violence. They were employed by the Environmental Health Department and acted as eyes and ears for the licensing department. They worked in close liaison with the police to gather intelligence on any bad practices which they observed. These wardens also provided a vital link for the Bar Watch scheme distributing information where necessary.

Another key factor in the project has been to consider the benefits of research.

Margaret Cooper, of High Row Research, is employed by the project to co-ordinate research with target groups. The research within Project Hammered has been designed to explore the relationship between perpetrators and victims of violent crime. She examines how the outcome of any event can be affected by the presence and beliefs of bystanders at the location of the incident. Margaret works closely with Dr Mark Levine from Lancaster University to examine possible triggers for violence. Their findings have already been instrumental in changing the way the towns policing is organised.

Elements of the research include:

• Questionnaire survey and in depth interviews referred through Turning Point.

• Interviews with individuals excluded under Bar Watch Schemes.

• Questionnaire survey and in depth interviews with individuals referred through Victim Support

• Questionnaire survey with taxi drivers as witnesses of violent crime.

• Interviews with police officers.

• Newspaper study examining reporting of violent crime.

• Observations of licensed premises.

Margaret is keen to talk to people about their experiences of violence and can be contacted on 01434 382381.

Domestic violence is a more difficult area to address. We know that the violence seen in the public arena is being mirrored in the home. The under reporting of domestic violence is well known. On average a female will have been abused over thirty times before reporting what may be happening to her. Many of these cases are never heard in court and the majority of females return home to their violent partner. This group of victims are denying themselves access to counselling and support and continue to live in difficult circumstances. Whist we already have safe havens in place and a dedicated team of trained police officers, we need to encourage and empower victims of domestic violence to seek help.

During the past year another police initiative has been running alongside Project Hammered. Operation Regulate is a local police initiative which has four extra officers on the streets during the busy nighttime period in the town centre. Over a dozen successful police operations have been run and they have contributed to a reduction in the number of violent incidents in the town centre. Barrow Borough Council assists in funding this initiative.

The posters shown on this page are part of the 'Crystal Clear' campaign on Merseyside to reduce violence and glass-related injury. The initiative is supported by the NHS, drinks trade, police and local authorities

Project Hammered has already achieved many successes and our aim is to ensure that they continue when the project has long finished. The sharing of good practice and information is vital if we are to continue to improve standards. The success of Project Hammered is a result of partnership approach and of the willingness of all those involved to break from tradition and develop new approaches, learning from others on the way.

If anyone requires further information then you can view our website on www.t-p-i.org.uk