Police train to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence

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Greater Manchester Police is holding a training event to help its officers tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder in licensed premises.

The training is sponsored by the Home Office and will take place from today (Monday 10 January 2011) to 12 January 2011 at the Manchester Conference Centre.

“There are already a number of well established operations in place across Greater Manchester to tackle alcohol-related crime, which have successfully made our city and town centres safer places to enjoy a night out,” said Chief Superintendent Steven Hartley, GMP’s lead on alcohol-related issues.

“However, as a number of changes have been made to the Licensing Act 2003 in the past 12 months and further ones are still to be implemented, we see this as a good opportunity to ensure our officers in particular those new to a licensing role have the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to deal with alcohol-fuelled violence.

“We want to remind them of all the powers available to them under the Licensing Act 2003 and the best ways to deal with those licensed premises who are putting their staff and customers at risk by not upholding the four objectives of the Act. As well as showing the need to work in partnership to tackle other issues such as alcohol being sold to underage drinkers.”

During the three-day event a team of representatives from the police, Home Office and legal services will carry out checks on a number of licensed premises with crime and disorder problems. Working with the Designated Premises Supervisor, the team will look to address any breaches in the licensing regulations and agree on the appropriate action to be taken. The event will also be used to learn from and share good practice from other police forces across the UK with our partners such as local authorities and trading standards.