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Sobriety tag scheme launches to tackle alcohol-related crime (4 August 2014)

Date: 04/08/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Sobriety tag scheme launches to tackle alcohol-related crime

A former White House drugs adviser who helped devise a pilot involving tagging “bad drunks” has said he is delighted that the scheme is being tested in the UK.

Last week London Mayor Boris Johnson helped launch the 12-month pilot, which involves using “sobriety tags” to curb excessive drinking and alcohol-related crime in London.

Those who regularly binge drink and commit crime will be fitted with ankle tags to detect the presence of alcohol in sweat. Courts in four London Boroughs have introduced the tagging system to beat binge drinking and associated violence. On Thursday (31/07/14), the first offender under the scheme was tagged – a 24-year-old man was fitted with the sobriety tag in Croydon after admitting unlawful violence.

The tags test sweat secretions for the presence of alcohol every 30 minutes and the results are automatically transmitted to probation officers, so that they can take action against an offender.

The scheme was devised with the help of Professor Keith Humphreys, who said he was delighted the pilot had been launched in Britain, “where it is clearly very much needed”.

Since licensing laws were relaxed under New Labour in a bid to create a 24/7 Continental “café society”, many town centres across the UK have become no-go areas because of binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence.

At the launch of the pilot scheme in Croydon last week, the London Mayor said:

“We need to look at people who get just a bit too tanked up on a Friday or Saturday night and get involved in some sort of alcohol-related crime, such as affray.

“Rather than lock them up, we can help them to beat it by putting this ankle-sniffing device on.”

The ban on drinking for offenders who are tagged can last as long as 120 days under the sobriety tag scheme.

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