FAST RESPONSE, SLOW FINISH FOR DRUGS BUST

Bureaucracy Is Tying Up Police Units On Top Priority Calls

Yankee Four takes the call just after 5pm and leads the charge to
Oakthorpe primary school with understandable, if measured, disregard
for the normal rules of the highway code.

It is the seventh time in two hours that this fast response car has
raced off in the direction of a possible crime, a less than promising
start to the shift for police constables Richard Clay and Colin Nye.

Now they have been told that two men have been seen smoking drugs in
a car less than 100 metres from the school in Ponders End, in the
south of the borough.

In the deprived council estates in areas such as this and Edmonton
Green, low level drug dealing is common. It is suspected that many of
the dealers are based in neighbouring Haringey, which has more
serious trafficking problems.

In the year up to April, 2001, there were 66 arrests for supplying
drugs and 489 for possession in Enfield. This compares with 168 and
866 in Haringey. Neither borough, though, has the kind of problems
experienced by league leaders Westminster, which recorded 296 arrests
for supply and 2,273 for possession.

The police controller has given this 999 call "i" status, which means
that it has top priority and must be responded to within 12 minutes.

Blue lights and siren turned off, Yankee Four sneaks up on the
suspects, taking them by surprise.

Inside the car, PC Nye, 28, finds a roll of tin foil. From the mouth
of one of the men, PC Clay, 32, retrieves a small amount of heroin
wrapped in a bundle of tissues.

The men appear to have chosen this road because it is quiet and their
activity has nothing to do with the school. Both are arrested, but
the success of the drugs bust is slightly soured for the officers.

The custody suite at Enfield is full, which means they will have to
go to another station, possibly out of the borough.

The officers admit this happens frequently and that on occasions they
have gone as far afield as Bishop's Stortford, in Hertfordshire, to
find free cells.

There is also the matter of paperwork. PC Clay does not believe that
Yankee Four will be out on patrol again before the end of the shift
at 10pm, and expects they may not be finished before 11pm. Several
hours of administration await them.

On this Tuesday, there are four fast response units patrolling
Enfield and the police have coped with the competing demands.

But PC Clay admits there are days when officers get so tied up with
bureaucracy, only one car is on duty for a borough that covers 32
square miles.