Police Christmas crackdown

SUFFOLK police today re-launched their crackdown to combat violent crime and drink drivers this Christmas.

The county's assistant chief constable, Colin Langham-Fitt, said the aim was to reassure people they are safe when going out during the festive season.

He said: "Suffolk is a very safe place, when compared with anywhere else in this country. However nationally, drink-related violent crime has been increasing in recent years.

"The public should not have to put up with the bad behaviour of a minority of irresponsible troublemakers. In the run up to Christmas and over the New Year, we will be targeting those people who drink too much and cause problems on our streets and in clubs and pubs and then get in cars and cause problems on the roads.

"At a countywide level, this year's drink drive campaign will be launched under the Night Safe banner. Certain categories of dangerous driving are counted in the violent crime statistics.

"Police will be targeting those who put their own and other's lives at risk on the roads by drinking or consuming drugs and driving.

"A campaign to target young clubbers who make themselves vulnerable to sexual and other assaults by consuming too much alcohol will be also launched in the near future."

Mr Langham-Fitt added the original crackdown on drink-fuelled violence, which was launched in June this year, has been a success.

He said: "I am pleased to say that the holistic approach we introduced to deal with drink fuelled violence appears to be working. The overall rate of increase in violent crime has slowed substantially since we launched our campaign at the end of June.

"Suffolk Constabulary has not worked in isolation to solve this problem and a great deal of credit must also be given to our partner agencies and organisations who have also worked extremely hard to support police in their crackdown."