Out on the town

Jackie Annett takes to the streets of Manchester to experience first hand a Friday night shift with the city's police

It's a Friday evening and I've just arrived at Manchester's Bootle Street police station ready to report for duty.

Tonight I will join officers from the Greater Manchester Police as they patrol the streets of Manchester city centre.

I am hoping to witness firsthand the problem of drink-related crime and disorder and see exactly how the police are tackling it with the help of the local business community.

Cue Sergeant Tim Whittaker and PC John Ennis.

They are to be my mentors for the evening as we drive around in a police van, listening to the crackle of the police radio, ready to jump into action in the event of any trouble.

I notice both men are dressed in bulletproof vests and carry batons - a stark reminder of just how dangerous our streets have become.

They work closely with the other teams of officers who are on the beat tonight, and are constantly in touch with the control room and the doorstaff at local pubs and clubs via a sophisticated "night-net" radio system.

The streets are already filled with young pub-goers and clubbers moving from one venue to the next. Loud music filters through into the rainy air and everywhere there are signs for "two for one", and blackboards offering "happy hour 5pm to 9pm".

"Binge drinking is a huge problem," said Tim, who has been with the police force for 23 years. "Some people arrive in the city at 5pm straight after work and by 9pm they are hammered. You can imagine what state they're in by two in the morning.

"Our 'Think Safe, Drink Safe Campaign' is looking at tackling this with the help of the licensed premises in the area," he adds.

The initiative focuses on changing people's drinking habits, rather than clamping down on licensees.

Billboard advertising has been erected around the city to drive the message home to the younger generation that binge drinking is dangerous and can land them in situations that are at best embarassing and at worst extremely dangerous.

Pubs are also doing their bit but Tim tells me it's a difficult task convincing licensees to curb drink promotions when they are all fighting for customers.

Nonetheless, all parties are agreed that something has to be done.

Fifty-five per cent of all Manchester's crime happens when the pubs, bars and clubs have opened their doors to the evening trade. But this is not to say that all the trouble is drink-related. Like every city, Manchester has its fair share of drug-dealers, prostitutes and muggers.

But as we set out for the evening shift, I could be forgiven for thinking the streets of Manchester were reasonably quiet.

We are called to a few minor incidents and, while I can hear over the radio that there has been some trouble elsewhere in the city, our patch is comparatively calm.

But just as I begin to think that my stint as a police officer is passing without major incident, Tim and John are put through their paces as news of a fight between two groups of men in our area breaks over the radio.

On arrival, the situation looks fairly tense but the police manage to defuse it pretty quickly. Tim tells me all the men have been drinking in the local pubs and clubs.

While incidents like this are of concern to the officers, the signs are that things are improving.

A year after 'Think Safe, Drink Safe' was set up, crime had dropped 8.5 per cent.

And an initiative in the city's Peter Street, which ran from the beginning of November last year until January 26, 2002, saw crime fall still further. Serious wounding and assaults were cut by 15 per cent and incidents involving doorstaff plummeted by 67 per cent.

The Peter Street initiative is perhaps best known for the fact that licensees in the area agreed to pay part of the cost for the extra police officers needed to patrol the street. This sparked controversy over whether the practice should be encouraged, or whether licensed premises already pay enough in business rates to cover any policing costs. Some opponents of the scheme said it was the thin end of the wedge and could eventually lead to the pub trade being forced to foot the whole bill for late-night policing.

But - controversy aside - Manchester police say the extra officers have helped cut crime in the area.

Tim oversaw the operational side of the initiative. "It has been extremely successful," he said. "All the licensees are 100 per cent behind the scheme. They all want to see it continue, but a couple of operators are unsure where the money will come from.

"In an ideal society money wouldn't be an issue. But gone are the days when licensed premises and brewers could fill people up with alcohol and then pour them out onto the streets for the police to clean up the mess.

"They have a social responsibility because they are fuelling the problems that we have on the streets."

Steps that have helped Manchester to cut crime: ​

• bylaws ensuring that people who are caught drinking on the streets are fined up to £1,000
• more licensees serving drinks in plastic glasses
• a night-net radio network linked up to the city's CCTV system allowing doorstaff and the police to communicate with each other
• doorstaff trained to a national standard
• all parties working together to improve transport links
• discouraging irresponsible drinks promotions that encourage binge drinking
• alerting people to "drink-spiking" - an activity that is said to be on the increase in the city
• encouraging people not to take their glasses or bottles out onto the streets or, if they do so, to discard them into an allocated bin
• promoting the image of Manchester city centre as a safe place to drink.