Crack squad disbanded
01 January 1991
Crack squad disbanded
artdoc April=1992
Scotland Yard have announced that a special crack squad set up
in November last year is to be disbanded because the predicted
increase in the use of cocaine has not taken place. In the
nine months of its existence, charges were made against 27
people, and 13 kilograms of cocaine worth Ãl million seized.
The squad consisted of 24 police and Customs officers, with 3
liaison officers in regional crime squad drugs units, and was
the first joint permanent operational body of Customs and
Excise and police.
When the task force was formed, there were dire warnings
that a huge crack explosion, similar to that which has
occurred in the US, was imminent in Britain. The Times
considers whether the disbandment of the squad is evidence
that the police `panicked' over drugs - a point of view that
the police emphatically deny, saying they acted `responsibly
in charting the progress of the problem'. But an editorial in
the Times, entitled `The Cracked Explosion' is critical of the
view that what happens in the US is bound to happen here, and
of the way in which drug statistics have been analysed as well
as the amount of police resources given over to drugs
operations as a result of these statistics. In particular the
Times seems keen to refute the idea that there is a black
underclass developing in Britain. `West Indians in Britain
have little in common with blacks in the United States except
their skin colour,' they write. `Their history and culture are
different, so is their pattern of concentration and degree of
participation in the national economy. The British welfare
state offers a more sophisticated system of support to
disadvantaged communities than does the American ones.' The
editorial ends up by strongly questioning the anxiety over
drugs that has been created by police awareness raising
publicity drives.
Meanwhile, the Met have said that their own crack unit will
continue to exist and has targeted several London estates
where crack is said to be made and distributed. (Independent
9.8.90; Times 9.8.90 and 10.8.90)
One problem estate identified by the Voice is Milton Court,
Deptford, once labelled `crack city'. Statistics just
published show that street crime has been cut in half in the
last year and major crime is down by two-thirds. The `Safer
Cities Project' provided Ã1/4 million for the estate which was
used to provide street lighting, install security doors and
redesign the landscape. Tenants expressed themselves as happy
with the changes. (Voice 14.8.90)
Institute of Race Relations, Police-Media Bulletin, no 63