Social workers will join police in a crackdown on under-age drinkers in Manchester city centre tonight.
They will be trying to identify young people vulnerable to exploitation because of booze.
Social workers from Manchester council will provide on-the-spot assessments and offer support to any vulnerable child approached by police in problem areas like Piccadilly Gardens.
The action could range from calling parents or giving healthcare advice to directing them to children’s services or charities such as Barnardo’s.
It is the first time this direct tactic has been used in the city centre. And Coun Pat Karney, lead member for the city centre, said: “The police and socxial work staff have the best interests of these young people at heart.”
The initiative is part of a police crackdown on alcohol-related crime, which was expected to include raids in every division of Greater Manchester today. Officers are hunting suspects of booze-fuelled violent assaults and criminals who have jumped bail and are on the run.
The operation, codenamed Portcullis, will see ‘safety arches’ – airport-style metal detectors – used in the city centre throughout the night to catch people carrying knives and other weapons. Sniffer dogs will also be out to catch people with illegal substances. GMP officers will be checking licensing agreements are being adhered to.
Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney said: “All too frequently, alcohol is a major cause of aggression and results in innocent people being subjected to violent and unprovoked assaults. Manchester was recently awarded a purple flag for safety. We want to keep it that way. Not only are we removing trouble-makers from the streets, but we’re also encouraging people to look after themselves by pacing their drinks, staying with their friends and using safe transport.
“My message is simple: I don’t want to see anyone spoiling everybody else’s fun by being drunk and causing trouble. If you do see trouble, walk away.”
Coun Jim Battle, the council's deputy leader, said: “This operation sends out a really strong message to that minority of people who are bent on trouble.”
Click here for live coverage of today's Operation Portcullis raids
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Showing comments 1 to 7 and replies | View All
Mike S, Manchester (19/02/2010 at 09:59)
Mum's little sun beam, on her knee (19/02/2010 at 10:43)
Mum's little sun beam, on her knee (19/02/2010 at 10:44)
andy waytomakeacomment, Greater Manchester (19/02/2010 at 12:37)
IF the objective is to achieve any real social impact then try tackling the anti-social underage drinking occuring on the streets of the regions suburbs. That will, of course, require a co-ordinated effort utilising massive out-of-hours resource - so unlikely to happen.
Anthony , Accrington,Lancashire (19/02/2010 at 14:49)
(a)Remove stocks of alcohol from shops who flout the law and immediately void the licences of shops who sell alcohol to kids and those buying for kids and a PERMANENT refusal to EVER licence those outlets to sell alcohol ever again(refusal to licence premises to sell fireworks again because retailers have flouted the underage selling laws on fireworks IS DONE by councils so why can't this ALSO be extended to cover alcohol?),
(b)Jail and severely punish adults who buy drink from retailers to pass on to children(this is done in Lancashire and does work;if the adults doing the purchasing are passing the drink onto kids from shops they DO get lumbered with a HUGE fine AND a prison sentence on top, that is deterrent AND warning to idiots who do this there is NO escape from punishment,
(c)Jail and severely punish parents who ply kids with drink to go and consume it openly on street corners/in parks/publicplaces etc and stop their benefits with the ultimate threat of eviction from council/housing association owned property if they do not comply or refuse to,
Hard hitting draconian measures like the ones proposed above would send out a message to those who cause nuisance and upset with illegal underage drinking and those who flout the laws on it and parents who give drink to kids to illegally consume that they will be punished NO EXCEPTION-until zero tolerance on this behaviour comes in, it will always fail like this pointless useless softy softy exercise designed to look after the youths humanrights and ignore the misery of those who suffer thru the consequences of this chavvy yobby behaviour.
Big Daft Dave (19/02/2010 at 19:33)
andy waytomakeacomment, Greater Manchester
It is happening in most areas in Greater Manchester and does pretty much every weekend
thaitanium (19/02/2010 at 19:47)