Haliey* sits slumped on the concrete steps in the picturesque grounds of St Philip's Cathedral in the heart of Birmingham's city centre. Tears are streaming down her face and black mascara is smudged around her eyes. Lying on the floor is an innocent-looking bottle of energy drink and a can of fizzy pop. It's only 7pm on a Tuesday evening and Haliey is clearly drunk.
PC Ben Reader reaches over, picks up the bottle and can and smells the contents. "There's definitely alcohol in here," he declares before asking 16-year-old Haliey and her friend how much alcohol they've consumed.
Tearfully, Haliey proceeds to tell PC Reader that she has recently fallen out with her boyfriend and had decided to get drunk to cheer herself up. PC Reader notes down Haliey's details and then tells her he is going to confiscate the alcohol and contact her parents. After failing to reach her dad, he decides to let her male friend take her home. Stumbling to her feet, Haliey leans on her friend's shoulder and goes on her way.
The scene playing out in Birmingham is the police's latest attempt to crack down on teenage drinking. Sixty-nine local authority areas across England have been given a share of £1.4m funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to prevent underage drinking over the summer break.
In Birmingham, its share of the money is being used to fund more patrols in teen drinking hotspots and to tackle the readily available supply of alcohol to young people. Over the school summer holidays, officers have being heading to parks and popular teen hangouts such as shopping areas to confiscate alcohol from young people and to return them home where necessary. Additional sting operations to help identify the outlets that are willing to sell alcohol direct to under-18s have also been run.
PC Abdool Rohomon, a licensing officer for West Midlands Police, has been organising many of the operations run in central Birmingham. He believes enforcement is an effective way of tackling teenage drinking. "We had a huge success in reducing problem drinking in Birmingham," he says. "For example, in Stechford and Shard End we always used to have both adults and kids out drinking in the streets. But then we funded a series of operations a couple of months ago and now when we do our patrols we've seen a huge drop in the number of people we're spotting drinking," he says.
Targeting adults
A trip to Shard End, a largely rundown residential area comprised of private houses and council flats, supports PC Rohomon's claims. Despite it being a sweltering August afternoon - which could be deemed the perfect conditions for teen drinking - officers only encounter two people drinking in public places, both of whom are over 18. The fact that they are legally old enough to drink doesn't mean they escape police action. The area has been designated an alcohol-free zone, giving the police the power to confiscate their drinks.
PC Rohomon believes that having such powers is a key weapon in the fight against teenage drinking. "We're making it unacceptable for both adults and young people to drink in public," he says. "If young people see adults drinking in public places, it sends out the message that it's okay. But by stopping the adults from drinking too, it shows the whole community we won't allow it."
Richard, one of the adults caught drinking, agrees with the need for the police to take action: "If you clamp down on adults drinking, then you stop the kids," he says. "In the parks around here we've had problems with youths drinking because they've had nothing better to do."
Sergeant Neil Ashton, neighbourhood officer for Shard End, says the response from most residents has been favourable too. "We had some people complain that they didn't know about the rules but most residents at neighbourhood meetings seem to appreciate not having people drinking outside shops and in other public areas."
To prevent alcohol falling into the hands of young people, the police in Birmingham are working in conjunction with a range of agencies including trading standards and HM Revenue and Customs. Neighbourhood officers provide intelligence on where they believe young people are obtaining the alcohol and then licensing officers and trading standards arrange test-purchasing operations using volunteers aged 16 and 17. The young volunteer will visit an off-licence, shop or pub accompanied by a plain-clothed police officer and, if a sale is made, a uniformed officer and member of trading standards will go into the premises and issue them with a fine. Fines can range from £80 to £5,000 per offence, and persistent offenders can face the prospect of losing their licence or even jail.
Tom and Sarah, both 16, are the young volunteer test purchasers today. Both have been taking part in the sting operations for several months and are pleased by their success record to date. "Last time I did the test purchasing three out of four shops sold me alcohol," reveals Tom. Sarah adds: "Only one shop asked me for ID as well."
Today, the police are targeting two shops in the Stockland Green area. Sarah is the first to leave the unmarked police van and within minutes comes back proudly brandishing a bottle of Archers alcopop. "I just went to the till and they rung it up," she says. "The guy behind the till didn't even speak to me."
Officers return to the shop to issue the shop worker with an £80 fine.
It's then Tom's turn to visit a premises further down the road. Within minutes, he returns with a bottle of Guinness in his hand. It's the second time this shop has failed a test purchase in recent months and the trading standards officer in particular is not impressed. "They have been warned before so we'll issue them with another £80 fine and make them aware that their licence is at risk if they don't take steps to prevent it from happening again," says Vir Ahluwalia, team leader for Birmingham Trading Standards.
Beyond enforcing the law
While inside the premises, eagle-eyed PC Rohomon spots an unusually large supply of alcohol stored out the back. He also notices some of the alcohol is being sold very cheaply and doesn't have the correct export labels for the UK. "I suspect that they're selling booze that's been imported illegally into the UK," he says. "I'll now put in a call to Revenue and Customs and the shop can expect a raid in the morning."
Such instances aren't unusual. PC Rohomon claims that the police recently helped seize about six tonnes of illegal booze with a street value of about £25,000 from one premises alone. "One of the good things about having the funding to run test-purchase operations is that you don't just stop them from selling to minors but you uncover other criminal activity as well," he says.
The 69 areas are encouraged to undertake early interventions and community relations work as well as police enforcement. Last year alcohol charity Addaction published its Parklife report into teenage drinking, which argues that the police should work more hand-in-hand with voluntary agencies at local teenage drinking hotspots, and provide information, support or specialist treatment where needed.
In South Lancashire, Addaction project workers have accompanied police to local drinking hotspots and, as a result of the work, the local police has reported not only a significant reduction in criminal damage but a significant rise in the numbers of young people receiving specialist treatment for their alcohol use, according to the charity. "Confiscation doesn't really do anything, especially if the young person drinks regularly," says a spokesman for the charity. "They need further help and education about the dangers they face if they drink."
He adds that police forces should also consider setting up diversionary activities with other agencies in drinking hotspots. "One of the main reasons teenagers say they drink is because they're bored," he says. "If you provide them with interesting things to do that are relevant to their age group, then they won't necessarily need to drink."
Back on the streets in Birmingham, teenagers believe that the police crackdown is worthwhile. Charlie, 15, who has been watching officers pouring away the alcohol confiscated from Haliey, says: "I think it's quite a good thing. It makes teenagers think about their actions and keeps the teenagers who want to get drunk away from public places."
PC Rohomon is convinced that this approach works too. "Violent crime has fallen by half in the city centre's most popular drinking area since we started cracking down on drinking about four years ago," he says. "What's also interesting is we rarely capture the same young person twice drinking in the streets, which suggests the message is getting through."
*The names of some young people have been changed
Word on the street
"The legal drinking age is 18 for a reason. Too many teenagers do bad things when they drink, which makes the rest of us look like troublemakers." - Tasmin, 19
"It's wrong that the police can take away alcohol from teenagers. If they've paid for it, they should be allowed to keep it." - Zach, 15
"I think what the police are doing is a bit over the top. I can understand them taking alcohol from younger children but if you're over 16 you're nearly old enough to drink." - Rosie, 15
"The police are only trying to protect young people. Although I like to drink, I can understand why they stop young people." - Tom, 17
