DRUG PROJECT STARTS TO SLASH CRIME RATE

A DRUG project set up three months ago to tackle crime caused by heroin
addiction is already making progress.

The Sherwood Project combines the experience and expertise of police,
probation officers and drug workers in a bid to cut crime by cutting the
number of addicts.

Staff running the scheme say they are already making in-roads in their
attempts to reduce crime.

And they say the impact of their so-called multi-agency approach will be
significant by this time next year.

"In a year's time I think we will have made a big impact on crime levels in
Worksop," the project's Det Sgt Lawson Main told the Guardian this week.

"We've just started to make an impact but I believe it will be an impact
that grows. We're seeing lives change already, people are moving on,
hopefully in a year's time we'll be able to demonstrate that we're succeeding."

Aimed at serious offenders, particularly those with long criminal records
for burglary, robbery, and car crime, the project combines support and
treatment for drug dependence with strict enforcement if further offending
is committed.

"We can help people with their problem and can help them get off drugs, but
we make it clear that we do not tolerate offending. If they offend, their
feet won't touch the ground."

A programme of intensive supervision involving nine persistent offenders is
currently taking place while a further 25 offenders due to be released from
prison on licence have been identified as targets for the programme.

"These people will have no option but to take part in the project, it will
be part of their licence and a condition of their release," added DS Main.

Notts Police's scheme to drug test everyone charged with offences also
means users can be identified earlier and targeted by the project.

"We're trying to make sure that nobody slips through the net. We will get
their details and try and get them to take part in treatment for their
problem. But if they choose not to, they won't be able to use the lack of
treatment on offer as an excuse should they turn up in court again."

DS Main has been involved with drug projects since the mid 90s when a
teenage drug user he had dealt with committed suicide.

"He'd burgled his parents and his grandparents and was on bail when he was
caught again burgling his grandparents. It was tragic and I thought there's
got to be a better way to tackle the problem than locking them up and
throwing away the key."

"That's when I started getting involved with offenders on a voluntary
basis. In many ways the names and faces don't change, it's a revolving door
with the same people on the streets doing the same habit and doing the same
crime."

"Now we've got offenders who have gone more than six months without
re-offending who previously couldn't go that long."

"If we're getting people off drugs, getting their lives back together,
giving them hope and giving them a future then we're succeeding."