Durham Chief Constable: Drug addicts need to be cared for - not prosecuted

NOT everyone will agree with me writing this column.

As Chief Constable for Durham Constabulary I don’t have to write for the Northern Echo.

In fact, quite a lot of people would probably say that I shouldn’t.

I could be accused, and I quite often am, of taking too many risks, by saying things deemed controversial, unconventional, putting myself in the line of fire.

Take for example my stance on drugs.

I have been a police officer for more than 35 years and I have witnessed the worsening problems of drug addiction.

Politicians and the media mostly collude in the fiction that we are winning the war on drugs – well I am sorry folks, we are not.

All I am saying, and have said previously, is that we should have an honest and frank debate on the subject. My Police and Crime Commissioner, Ron Hogg, agrees.

I strongly believe decriminalisation of Class A drugs would take away the income of dealers and destroy their power.

If you started to give a heroin addict the drug therapeutically, we would not have the scourge of hepatitis C and HIV spreading among needle users, for instance.

I have called for a controlled environment, not a free for all.

In addition I have said that people who encourage others to take drugs by selling them are criminals, and their actions should be tackled.

But addicts, on the other hand, need to be treated, cared for and encouraged to break the cycle of addiction. They do not need to be criminalised and their families, who have done nothing wrong, should not be stigmatised.

This stance doesn’t go down well with some and does put my head above the parapet.

But while I’m in a position where I can make a difference, that’s exactly what I’m going to try and do.

So during a spate of incidents involving students in the River Wear, I couldn’t sit by and do nothing.

The softly, softly approach clearly wasn’t working and I decided to take part in an extensive interview while out on patrol around Durham City.

In my experience, messages to work in the media have to be pithy.

I felt it was time to shock, but it was a risk.

Subsequently, I have received some criticism about the interview.

But if another young person was to die in the river and I had not taken that risk, I couldn’t live with myself.

The ethical code which I guide myself - and expect Police and staff to do so too – is simple: put the public first, then the organisation, then the individual.

If my unconventional stance on drugs lands me, the individual, in hot water but initiates a sea change on the drugs debate, so be it.

If I upset some individuals by taking a direct approach on river safety, but it saves lives and increases public safety, then I can sleep at night.

I am so proud to serve as Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary and lead such a committed and hardworking team.

And while I have that honour, the public will trump everything else, every time.

SO have the national Press learnt from the Leveson Inquiry?

Well, if recent behaviour by one tabloid is anything to go by, I think not.

A story was featured in all local and national Press in which they named footballer Adam Johnson after a man had been arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a child under 16.

One ‘red top’ published a photograph, although pixelated, in which they badged it an ‘exclusive first picture’ of the girl involved in the alleged incident.

The identity of anyone who makes a sexual complaint is protected – by the law.

Just when did a girl, a child, who has made a sexual complaint, become a legitimate source of journalistic material?

MOST of you know I am not a native of County Durham.

But I have lived here and worked here for eight years, and let me tell you - what a cracking place it is.

There is a real difference in our region.

We regularly have visits from other forces, which I will update you on in this column, and they all comment on the ‘positive feel’ of County Durham and Darlington.

It really is something to be proud of.