Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones has provided £480,950 of funding from the Drug Confiscation Fund (DCF) – along with a Home Office grant of £150,000 – for a new drug testing initiative.
The Police and Crime Commissioner has already set up a Pan Hampshire Combating Drugs Board – the first of its kind in the Solent region – to further support the government’s national drug strategy and the 4 local Combating Drugs Partnerships, which offer a bespoke place-based response.
Funding for the drug testing on arrest (DToA) scheme, which has been rolled out across the 4 custody centres in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, allows for the recruitment of DToA support officers as well as training to spot possible signs of domestic abuse. The training will upskill substance misuse workers to have the best conversations and encourage engagement with domestic abuse support services.
The DCF funding will support the DToA scheme until December 2024 while the Home Office cash injection is until March next year.
PCC Donna Jones has said:
“Police officers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are working tirelessly to crack down on supply lines and exploitation, and the drug testing on arrest programme enhances the commitment to relentlessly tackle drug use and increase engagement with community-based drug and alcohol services.
“There is a clear link between drug dependency and crime so this initiative helps to steer people into support programmes that break that cycle, so we can reduce crime and protect victims.
“If a person is arrested for a trigger offence, which largely relates to theft including burglary, robbery and stealing cars, they can be required to take a drugs test.
Article continues below this advertisement “If they test positive, they can then be required to attend a drug assessment. This assessment is broader than drug use and provides a good opportunity to encourage ongoing engagement with community-based services.
“This is about supporting offenders by looking at the whole picture, and helping them get the support they need whilst reducing offending.”
Police Inspector John Smith – from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary – said
“This new approach investigates the issues from the ‘inside out’ and looks to solve problems in a multi-agency led approach.
“Working with our partner agencies is crucial to the scheme’s success because the collaboration means we can provide a more rounded service to those in need and open up pathways into rehabilitation.”
What a daft photo. Who she think she is? Queen B?
I laughed when I saw the photo. It reminds me of the tv programme Cell Block H. Also, Silence of the Lambs came to mind.
Was Queen B massively obese as well then?
To solve that problem just legalise drugs. Sorted. No more shop thefts, no more robbing old grannies etc.Alcohol is a killer, so is smoking but both are legal.
and people still rob shops for alcohol and ciggies.
Alcoholics with no money will still steal charity boxes and any money they can get for booze n smokes – so legalising drugs won’t change a thing – except the government will be taxing it and then the thieves will steal that also.
She is doing good stuff. With out giving that £600000 to a lab owned by foreigners our Island would crumble!
Exactly what needs to happen and certainly will happen in time. Police don’t have time to deal with weed and some of them use it themselves!! FACT!!
Everybody takes drugs. Can’t wait to see the news story on when shes caught doing coke haha
No they don’t
Everyone takes drugs in some form whether it be paracetamol or antibiotics…… Not everyone takes illegal drugs……
I hope very good records will be maintained on how many offenders benefit from this massive investment in their wellbeing. Personally I think it will takes more than a few sessions to achieve real rehabilitation and once you start a scheme like this it cannot “just stop”. I do hope this has had some forward thinking before being implemented. Forward thinking seems to be something lacking in some areas.
Miss pigggy never will change
Use the money to weed out all the police officers you hired that should never of got the job.
Wayne Cousins and David Carrick are both full-life prisoners now, but when will someone admit that the vetting system for joining the Police Force is a Joke!!
As heinous as their crimes are and like any man you pass on the street what test or system of proof will alleviate any doubt of someones disposition to commit awful acts of violence? Someone with no convictions or apparent “disturbing attitudes towards women or murder” will pass through because ultimately unless your a mind reader or spend decades observing their behaviours what else can you do to prevent what horrible things people are capable of. As much as I want peace and for everybody to love one another its important to recognise that these crimes happened after they were hired so micro managing serving officers is the surest way based on your approach to the culture that we are becoming more adept to noticing.
Typical of PCC Me Me Me .. this will not make any difference it’s all about positive optics .. make us believe things are changing .. they are not.. read the island papers !! Drugs are on the islands .
Having lost a daughter to drugs I propose that magistrates have the power to sentence repeat offenders with substance issues to compulsory residential treatment. If the offender does not engage then the order is 12 months. If the offender engages then the length of treatment is reduced to 6 months. This would of course entail the establishment of semi secure treatment units. The war on drugs has failed miserably. It’s time to use a treatment model not a punitive criminal model.
Have we met?
If you are unable to make an intelligent contribution to the conversation. Then be quite when the grown ups are talking.
I have a step son on drugs. I wish he’d get ‘lost’ to drugs…he is a total drain on society, scamming his way past everything- Doctors, Hospital, Police, Magistrates, Judges and all of our family.If he can dream up another excuse to get som more Diazepan , he will and they all fall for it.
Disgusting comment!, grow up
Say what I see fool.she earning sh.. loads and does fa
Any minute now a bat will fly out of her hair. She looks like a character from a 1980’s Hammer House of Horror episode…. and in any event, how does she have clearance to allow so much tax payers money get wasted on a totally bonkers plan?
so we can reduce crime and protect victims, she said
You can’t protect victims, the crimes have already been committed and it is only at that time, that you get victims and sometimes, get involved!!
Give yourself a slap on the back Ms Jones,for doing your job.It might go some someway towards justifying your salery.
Terry tiny pecker packs a punch
Just legalise things already instead of wasting tax money on a failing ‘war on drugs’ that governments and taxpayers have been losing for decades. Imagine the difference a properly regulated market would do for the economy – taxed properly like alcohol and tobacco – but sold by pharmacists or chemists with control over what is actually in what people are taking. It would be safer for people and would eliminate an awful lot of drug related gang activity and violence. People will take drugs regardless if they want to and all this does is waste more and more money on prosecution and imprisonment – honestly how much difference is £600k going to make against an industry that makes billions and has an endless stream of people willing to profit
100%. Fancy standing as MP next year? There’s some top cops on the same wavelength but they don’t want to shout too loud because they are too close to their huge police pension…
It works in Canada and many other places in the world.
OR we go the opposite :- singapore route- death penalty if you get gaught with just a small amout of coke/heroin.
Either works for me.
Its funny that they need 600k to detect weather someone is on drugs when I can tell straight away for free 🙂
When those who criticise actually get off their arse and do something their stupid comments might hold some weight. Until then please politely stick it where the sun doesn’t shine and let those of us who actually do try to make a difference take constructive steps to improve the world.
I bet you’re a old fart with that attitude
What steps have you taken to ” improve the world” and how is that working out for you?
Don’t assume you know anything about the people on here, the truth could actually shock you.
Sandown Pier is home of youngsters taking drugs.
Full of them yesterday.
No Law and Order on the Pier
Old fart Colin get with the times
What’s up Colin they not young enough for you strange man