Drunk and disorderly? Pay to stay in the ‘drunk tank’
Drinkers who can’t look after themselves should be put in privately-run cells until they sober up – and then pay a fee for the privilege, says a police chief, fed-up with intoxicated revellers.
Chief Constable Adrian Lee, the national policing leader on alcohol harm, said that people who need medical treatment after excess drinking should no longer be the responsibility of the police service.
Launching a week-long campaign aimed at highlighting alcohol harm, Mr Lee suggested that intoxicated individuals be taken to a cell run by a commercial company and charged for their care the morning after.
“I do not see why the police service or the health service should pick up the duty of care for someone who has chosen to go out and get so drunk that they cannot look after themselves,” he said.
“So why don’t we take them to a drunk cell owned by a commercial company and get the commercial company to look after them during the night until they are sober?
“When that is over we will issue them with a fixed penalty and the company will be able to charge them for their care, which would be at quite significant cost and that might be a significant deterrent.”
It is believed the suggested fee paid to the private company could be in the region of a few hundred pounds.
Nearly 50 per cent of all violent crime is alcohol related, said Acpo.
Private policing
He also criticised the government for dropping plans to implement a minimum price for a unit of alcohol in England and Wales.
The chief constable is not the first to suggest introducing drunk tanks in the UK: Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Matthew Grove recently suggested the idea in an interview. And the holding cells for drunks are also used in parts of Europe and America.
The public suggestion comes amid a government-wide review of all contracts held by Serco and G4S, two of the country’s biggest private providers of public services. The audit, triggered by revelations that both firms had overcharged the government for criminal-tagging contracts, prompted calls for the Ministry of Justice to abandon plans to privatise large chunks of the probation and prison service.
Read more: G4S accused of massive fraud over electronic tagging
And it follows proposals for increased privatisation of the police service by way of sponsorship – floated earlier this year by Dorset PCC Martyn Underhill.
Mr Lee added: “We are not the experts on health. It is quite difficult to work out where the best place to put a drunk is. Is it a police station, or do they need to be at a hospital?”