Creating Safer Nightlife Settings

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Creating Safer Nightlife Settings

• Karen Hughes
• Centre for Public Health
• Liverpool John Moores University
• WHO Collaborating Centre for Violence Prevention

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Safer Clubbing in the UK

• Focus on alcohol
• Reducing anti-social behaviour
• Preventing violence
• Increasing safety
• Enforcement
• Responsible management
• Award Schemes

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Wider nightlife environments

• 70 of assaults requiring Emergency treatment
  occur in streets / public places (Wirral)
• Mainly around nightlife areas

• Crowds of drunk people on streets
• Competition for transport home
• Vulnerability to crime
• violence
• mugging
• sexual assault
• Accidents / road traffic accidents

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Safer Towns and Cities

• Measures to increase safety and deter crime
• getting into nightlife
• travelling between bars and nightclubs
• getting home at the end of the night

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Security in nightlife areas

• Additional security staff
• Community Support Officers
• Bus Loaders
• Taxi Marshalls
• Community Volunteers

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Security in nightlife areas

• Radio links
• Bars and nightclubs
• Pub Watch

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Door Supervisors

• Weekend Night - Liverpool
• 80 Police - 2000 Door Staff
• Control of Door
• Control of Drugs
• Drunkenness
• Exit into streets
• Street observation
• Local Registration
• Effective but limited by rapid turnover of staff

• National scheme 2005
• Excluded if prior convictions
• Training includes conflict resolution, search
  policies, communication, legislation..

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Street drinking bans

• Designation of public places as alcohol-free
  zones
• Prevent street drinking
• Reduce glass on streets

• National powers given to local authorities 2001
• Police can confiscate alcohol being consumed in a
  designated area
• Refusal to surrender alcohol can result in arrest

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Street drinking bans
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On-the-spot fines

• Punish and deter alcohol-related offending
• On the Spot Fines
• Drunk and disorderly, serving alcohol to drunks,
  littering, noise, vandalism

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Environmental Design

• Improved street lighting
• White street lighting
• facial recognition
• safety perceptions

• Alleygating
• Pedestrianisation
• Hydraulic bollards
• Litter bins
• Public toilets
• Location of transport points

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Late Night Transport

• Lack of transport linked to high violence
• Evidence suggests key factor in reducing problems

• Night buses
• Commercial in major cities
• Problems with finances, driver safety concerns,
  vandalism ..
• Overcome through partnership
• Gloucester CDRP pay back any loss to bus
  company in 1st 6 months
• commercially viable

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Late Night Transport

• Public Taxis
• Improving safety at ranks

• Manchester Taxi Safe
• Taxi Marshals
• Set protocol
• High visible uniforms
• Widely promoted
• Violence at marshalled ranks dropped gt50
• Managed ranks
• direction of travel

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Late Night Transport

• Taxis private
• London 2002
• 212 sexual assaults involving illegal taxi cabs

• STAN
• Awareness campaign
• Text number for registered taxis
• Sexual assaults down to 120 in 2005

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Manchester Safety Messages
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Integrated Schemes

• Best Bar None
• Top Ten
• Multi-agency visits
• Help points
• Taxi Safe

• Street drinking ban
• Private cost policing
• Late night buses
• Safe bins
• Think Safe, Drink Safe

• Serious violent assaults decreased gt30
• Model for Safer Nightlife in Alcohol Strategy

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Planning

• Printworks
• 20 venues
• Bars, nightclubs, restaurants, cinema
• Bar / nightclub capacity 9,000
• 2 exits
• Circled by main road
• key transport route
• Problems with violence and traffic accidents
• Preventable with good planning

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Summary

• Creating safer nightlife settings means working
  both inside and outside bars / clubs
• Much harm occurs in streets
• Wide range of measures can increase safety
• Environmental design and late night transport
• Early planning key to nightlife safety
• Cumulative impact
• Greater concentrations of drinking venues linked
  to violence
• More clubs, more people, more problems
• Essential sufficient resources are available
• Policing, health, transport, street cleaning

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Thank you

• Karen Hughes
• k.e.hughes_at_ljmu.ac.uk