South coast football derby

So Saints and Pompey get to meet in the next round of the FA Cup. This is the sort of fixture that fans want; excitement, good football, city rivalry and a chance to show that despite recent problems for both clubs the football heritage in this area is still very strong. I was glad it was a Saints home draw, not because it favours Soton (must maintain police impartiality) but because I genuinely think that it's a great ground for putting on a safe event for everyone.
I think of the tens of thousands of fans for whom this will be a great day either at the stadium or around the 2 cities or watching or listening at home. I was policing the Ipswich match on Saturday and when the results were in this was the draw I was looking for. We'll deliver a top class police operation and support both clubs so it's a great day for everyone to be proud of and remember for ages. We have already had our first planning meetings and there will be lots to do over the next 3 weeks and I will be saying more here and elsewhere about how the work is going.

New booze laws - is it enough?

If you look at those famous pictures Hogarth did showing the effects of excessive drinking you might think they are just a caricature and were an attempt to shock by depicting the extremes of drunkenness but they were not reality. Well maybe that's true to a point. However, if you haven't experienced a busy city centre on a Saturday night and maybe visited a police custody centre or a hospital casualty department then you wont know how often some of those Hogarth scenes are played out still every weekend. In the press in Southampton this week there was coverage of a horrible assault by drunken youths which resulted in a court case and 6 people being sent to prison for their part in the attack. A good result but a shame it ever happened. The Government has announced plans for tougher laws around licensing designed to reduce excessive and underage drinking. That's welcome but I would like to see more. In Southampton we are determined to reduce the amount of crime and disorder, especially in the City centre, caused by excessive drinking and we are seeing some results of that. It's not all about policing by any means (for example the Street Pastors Service is a great new addition to helping people in the City centre) but police enforcement has a big role to play and we are having some success. There is less violent crime in the City overall and less in the City centre at night. Less but still too much including too much violence against women in public and at home. For my part I would like to see us tackle excessive drinking in the same way we did smoking. Through more advertising control and bans, pricing policy, education, more restrictions on sale, more treatment services and increased local authority and police enforcement. We've got to the point where smoking is widely dissaproved of and we need to achieve the same for heavy drinking especially amongst young people. I don't think I am a miserable prohibitionist but you can only see so many people harmed by excessive drinking before you decide there must be a better way. I can't accept a 'positive' impact on company profit lines as sufficient reason to put up with the harm and waste caused by excessive drinking so I am pleased that more licensees in the City are talking with us about responsible policies and practice. That's very welcome but we've been here before and I still see plenty of evidence that we need to do more to make sure that Hogarth's vision is one which is increasingly just historical.

Beauty and a Beast

Driving into Southampton this morning the Avenue, with all the trees covered in fresh snow, looked as beautiful as I have ever seen it in winter. To have such natural beauty right into the City is really precious. I realised though that this beauty also masked the reality of a tough day for many people coping with more snow. Another local area of beauty marred by a different reality was featured this week in the press as we try and resolve the horrific murder of Georgina Edmonds at Brambridge 2 years ago. Her house on the River Itchen is in an area of great natural beauty and one I know well from regular walks along the river. The impact of her death on family and friends was of course profound and must still be felt every day. Such an awful crime may only happen here once in 10, 20, or maybe 30 years but the impact affects almost everyone living in the area and for a long time. I know that at the local schools childhood fascination for the macabre hid a genuine fear for many which hasn't gone. I am sure we will catch her killer. We will certainly need help from people in the community to do that and let's hope this week's publicity might achieve that. But I am sure for many people who, like me, enjoy the walks in that area we will never pass that place without thinking about Georgina. Beauty sometimes hides something more ugly but, fortunately, is rarely beaten by it.

Policing the big freeze

Seems to me we have been lucky in the City and escaped the worst of the weather this time. Just before Christmas we had to deal with the morning when all our roads were sheet ice. This time the disruption hasn't been nearly so bad but has still caused plenty of problems for people. It has also brought more evidence of the commitment of many public workers in the city determined to get to work to help deliver their service. Health workers, care workers, highways staff, fire, ambulance and of course police officers and police staff. One of my colleagues walked 5 miles into work yesterday and the same back home last night. That's real commitment to his work and public service. Despite the weather, officers have still been out responding to calls and dealing with crime for example executing a warrant yesterday to close a small cannabis factory. If you have called us and we haven't managed to get to you as quickly as we promised then I am sorry but I hope you can understand why that might be. I can assure you we are still policing the City and responding promptly to all the most urgent calls. More snow still to come this weekend it seems so we all need to keep being careful and make only the really essential journeys. Going home from work last night at rush hour time it seemed many people had taken that advice, the Avenue was almost empty. You know its bad when Saints football is postponed. I think that's the first time since they have been at the new stadium that the cold has stopped a game so not a bad record.

Teenager robbed as passers-by ignore plea for help

This story is in the Echo today - two people walking past a 16yr old being robbed in the street when he was asking them to help. Echo website comments suggest people dont stop and help because they are worried about being assaulted themselves or they are worried they'll be in trouble with us if they intervene. On the first I can understand it but what a pity there is such fear which is often unfounded. Violence is often threatened but rarely used, as in this case the victim wasnt physically harmed. On the second, is this just an excuse? The law comes from Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 which says,
"A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large."
So, as long as what is done is reasonable then we shouldn't fear coming to the assistance of someone being robbed. What we should all fear is the spreading of a general unwillingness to act to protect ourselves and each other. I think of another quote "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".