Sussex Police and the National Health Service, and Brighton’s Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) launched a project aimed to address excessive drinking and the associated crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in Brighton’s city centre.
The BCRP works to reduce crime and ASB and has run an exclusion notice scheme for some years which bans offenders from BCRP member premises after reports of ASB or crime.
To try and break the cycle of binge drinking and alcohol-related crime and ASB, the BCRP will now offer the chance to attend an alcohol diversion course to anyone issued with a BCRP exclusion notice involving alcohol-related criminal activity or suspected of using false ID. The course will offer offenders the opportunity to address their behaviour by identifying the link between alcohol, violence and offending, physical and psychological harms, the legal impact on a person and alcohol units and unit content.
Offenders wishing to appeal their BCRP exclusion notice will have to attend an alcohol diversion course before their appeal will be considered. Leaflets will also be distributed by Brighton’s street pastors who work with people who have become vulnerable through alcohol or drug use and are in need of immediate support and assistance.
Lisa Perretta, Brighton & Hove crime manager said, “We are always looking at ways to improve our services. The exclusion notice scheme has proved very successful at removing trouble makers from the city centre and running the alcohol diversion course alongside the exclusion notice scheme will enhance this by addressing the root causes of the problem behaviour.”
