929 violent crimes in Bournemouth town centre last year

9:07am Tuesday 24th July 2012 in News By Jane Reader

MAKING A POINT: Inspector Dean O’Connor launches the poster campaign MAKING A POINT: Inspector Dean O’Connor launches the poster campaign

A POLICE campaign to combat alcohol-related violent crime and injury has been launched in Bournemouth at the start of the hectic summer season.

Nearly 1,700 crimes of assault, affray and public order offences were committed in so-called night-time economy areas across Dorset last year with most – 929 – taking place in Bournemouth town centre.

The area has become the focal point for the campaign which urges revellers to “Enjoy your night – stay out of trouble”.

Posters are now being displayed in pubs, bars and clubs and on lampposts. They will also be placed in university buildings and halls of residence from September.

“All too often we have to arrest people in the town centre who have had too much to drink and decide to cause trouble or get into fights” said Inspector Dean O’Connor.

“People have been left with extremely serious injuries as a result of drunken violence so it is important we do everything we can to reduce these offences.”

Horrific crimes include an attack which left 23-year-old Maximillian Ruas in a coma with bleeding on the brain after three youths stamped on his head as he made his way home from a nightclub.

A 30-year-old man suffered serious facial injuries during a violent assault in Bournemouth Gardens and a man was left for dead and found unconscious in Cambridge Road.

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Artwork used in the campaign features a male character, who represents an alcohol-fuelled, violent offender, in various situations.

He is shown getting into a fight, being arrested and in a police cell.

“I’m not saying people shouldn’t enjoy a night out,” added Insp O’Connor, “but they shouldn’t drink to the extent that they wake up in a police cell the following morning.”

A similar, award-winning campaign last year, which targeted alcohol-related sexual offences, saw a 31 per cent reduction in serious sexual violence across the county compared with the previous year.

The new campaign is part of Operation Protect, Dorset Police ’s approach to reducing serious and violent crime in Dorset.

Insp O’Connor added: “This campaign supports our aim of making Bournemouth town centre a safe place for residents and visitors to enjoy.

“However, members of the public must also take responsibility for their own actions and take measures to stay safe and not commit offences.”

Comments(17)

wilchi says...
10:19am Tue 24 Jul 12

Thats all very well but im sick to death of walking around town especially in Boscpmbe and seeing groups of drunk people sitting especially outside McDonalds and in the Crescent with cans of alchohol in hand and not a sign of a police officer doing anything. It doesnt take a brain surgeon to just have someone go there maybe once a week to empty there cans to maybe dispurse them on. I know the Police have had their budgets cut but come on if I can see them there most days it isnt going to take up too much of their time

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Couchy125 says...
10:43am Tue 24 Jul 12

My son and his young family were walking through Bournemouth pleasure gardens on Sunday afternoon and some drunk on a bench urinated himself in front of them. And did not give a dam. They are all over the place. There has been a bloke sat outside Ask for about 3 years giving people Aggro. What is being done about him. Oh I can answer that. NOTHING. Get a grip council/police.

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HRH of Boscombe says...
10:57am Tue 24 Jul 12

wilchi I agree the Police are really lazy on this issue.
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All the Police need to do is take thier beer and pour it down the drain. No paperwork, no fuss.
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Hit the drunks where it hurts. Most will probably not have the money to just replace them. Maybe next time they'll drink at home.

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Upkeep says...
11:07am Tue 24 Jul 12

Blame the bleeding hearts and Liberalists and a Police force that hasnt wanted to flex its powers on these people.

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BmthNewshound says...
11:43am Tue 24 Jul 12

Its not just Boscombe, the town centre appears to be attracting more drunks and tramps even during the day. Bournemouth Gardens by the war memorial, in the shadow of the town hall and a designated no alcohol zone, is quite a popular place for drunks during the day but nothing seems to be done about it.
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It would be interesting to see how these statistics compare to other towns of a similar size.
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On the surface the high number of assaults flies in the face of the Council being awarded a purple flag for having a safe and well managed night time economy. We just seem to be getting conflicting messages.
.

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goatty says...
11:51am Tue 24 Jul 12

Police are to lazy to respond. I actually phoned the police the other evening after witnessing yobs vandalising a kids play area and urinating in front of woman and children. It took nearly 10 minutes to answer then another 5 minutes to be put through to a woman who was more interested in who I was than the incident. I told her where the incident was happening and she had no idea where I was talking about and then kept asking more questions about where i lived!! I was so annoyed i actually waited to see what response time would be. An hour later I gave up waiting.

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penhale says...
12:20pm Tue 24 Jul 12

No money to be made in dealing with this sort of criminal behavior, motoring offences however bring in thousands.

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ekimnoslen says...
12:30pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Lets take into account unreported incidents and assume at least 2,000 incidents. Our concern should be:
1) The authorities still seem to hand out alcohol licences to all and sundry instead of restricting them.
2) Our policing is totally inadequate and seems to care nothing for this type of crime. (What exactly do the police do, we ask?)
While "booze" is so readily available at all hours this type of crime will continue to increase. Drunkenness in public places should automatically be an arrestable offence.

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glennzilla says...
12:36pm Tue 24 Jul 12

BmthNewshound wrote:
Its not just Boscombe, the town centre appears to be attracting more drunks and tramps even during the day. Bournemouth Gardens by the war memorial, in the shadow of the town hall and a designated no alcohol zone, is quite a popular place for drunks during the day but nothing seems to be done about it.
.
It would be interesting to see how these statistics compare to other towns of a similar size.
.
On the surface the high number of assaults flies in the face of the Council being awarded a purple flag for having a safe and well managed night time economy. We just seem to be getting conflicting messages.
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Not really when you consider that the nighttime weekend visitor numbers are estimated at 2.5 million per year! 929 crimes equates to about 0.04% therefore safe for the vast majority.

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Winstonchilled says...
12:43pm Tue 24 Jul 12

It’s a shame that a very serious message seems to have been infantilized in the posters and seems to assume from the outset that the majority of adults need a stickman characters to understand something.
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The message also seems rather ambiguous as surely it is not about “causing trouble” but rather breaking the law? (Is there much point arresting someone who is a bit louder than normal – maybe they just need to go home and have a good sleep?)
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It is interesting to look at Eric Berne’s Transactional analysis model, which seems to suggest that if someone behaves as a parental figure from the beginning towards another, then the other party will naturally respond in a childlike way. If it’s correct it seems no wonder that there are so many arrests.
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There is difference between good healthy fun and things getting completely out of hand. The question is if a person is partying in the middle of the forest do they really make a sound?

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cleanery says...
12:48pm Tue 24 Jul 12

i dont agree pouring beer down a drain
its Sacrilege you know

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muscliffman says...
2:13pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Just another special 'Operation' that translates into doing the job we wrongly believed the Police were doing all the time.
There is a danger that these occasional 'operations' are encouraging the views expressed so clearly on here that the Police are becoming unacceptably ineffective.

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Kiki1973 says...
2:52pm Tue 24 Jul 12

There seem to be a lot of fingers pointed at the (cash strapped and overworked ) police here and very little about personal and societal culpability. Without the thought process that booze equals fun, this would be a much smaller issue. The only reasonable solution is to limit the amount of alcohol sold, whether that be through pricing or time restrictions, surely? And before anyone goes on about pricing alcohol out of the reach of the average Joe, stop to think: is alcohol a luxury or a necessity? If it's a luxury, then buy it occasionally and use it accordingly. If it's a necessity, get to your GP for some antabuse.

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Adrian XX says...
3:27pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Kiki1973 wrote:
There seem to be a lot of fingers pointed at the (cash strapped and overworked ) police here and very little about personal and societal culpability. Without the thought process that booze equals fun, this would be a much smaller issue. The only reasonable solution is to limit the amount of alcohol sold, whether that be through pricing or time restrictions, surely? And before anyone goes on about pricing alcohol out of the reach of the average Joe, stop to think: is alcohol a luxury or a necessity? If it's a luxury, then buy it occasionally and use it accordingly. If it's a necessity, get to your GP for some antabuse.
It's not a necessity, but before the 2003 licensing act, there was far less trouble in our town centres. The 2003 act was supposed to create "continental" style drinking, but instead has create a unique British style where most bars are aimed at a narrow age range, most have door staff (which many people find intimidating), nearly all play extremely loud music (so that people drink more) and many encourage standing up so that they can pack in as many as possible. Were their customers more relaxed - i.e. seated and able to hold a conversation, there would be fewer incidents.

So the ordinary person who likes to drink wine at home has to pay more in tax just so that a minority can drink late?

Time restrictions would be better - there is simply no need for people to be out until 6am - they can continue to drink at home until noon the next day if they wish to do so. It is a myth that on the continent bars are open all the time - most are closed by midnight or 1am. I don't see why we in Britain need to go from one extreme to the other (11 pm closing to never-closing). Let's have some restriction on licensing hours brought back in - say 2 or 3 am.

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retry69 says...
3:46pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Of course as always the finger is pointing at everybody except the culprits, that the part of our society that cannot go and have a drink and enjoy without putting somebody else at risk.Not the unemployed, not the homeless,not the so called down and outs its the people that could not give a toss about anyone else,that is possibly half the Echo readers

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luda says...
5:17pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Cut the opening hours for off licensed shops,go back to the old opening hours.
As for crime, well a lot of students have been attacked but don`t want the police involved, two attempted rapes in west cliff road in the past two months the recent was last Friday at 10 pm a 15 year old foreign student was attacked but a passer by saved the day. Once again she did not want the Police involved.

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snake hips says...
8:04pm Tue 24 Jul 12

what a pointless waste of money that poster is.. What we need is the police force to be feared and respected not all this 'hug a hoody' rubbish and asbos etc.. Instead the police are more worried about presecuting the motorist rather than good old fashioned policing.

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