Bradford MP, David Ward, has spent the day with West Yorkshire Police in order to learn more about their work to tackle drug crime, the new motorbike unit and the Neighbourhood Policing Teams in his constituency.
David began the 10 hour visit with the Organised Crime Unit at West Yorkshire Police to see for himself the work that they do to try and reduce the instances of drugs and organised crime in his Bradford constituency.
Following a recent survey conducted by David’s office, it showed that many people were very concerned about the prevalence of drug crime particularly within the Bowling & Barkerend and Little Horton areas of David’s constituency.
David also did a tour of the local area with the Neighbourhood Policing Team to learn about the work they do to engage with local Bradfordians and he also met up with the Bradford “Quad Squad” who are doing some fantastic work trying to reduce the level of anti-social behaviour caused by the riding of dirt bikes and quad bikes in busy neighbourhoods.
Commenting David Ward MP said: “I’m very grateful for West Yorkshire Police and particularly the hard working local officers spending time with me and allowing me to see about the good work they do to try and both prevent and prosecute criminal drug activity.
“Drug Crime is an issue of concern to many in my constituency and I’m pleased that the Police are putting in extra resources to try and tackle organised drug crime. However, there is only so much the Police can do without further help.
“That’s why the Liberal Democrats and I believe that it’s now time to take a more evidenced approach to fighting drug crime with major evidence suggesting that tough criminal sentences for drug users make no difference to the rates of drug use.
“It’s time to be brave with our drugs policy and I’m in favour of scrapping prison sentences for people whose only crime is possession of drugs and instead directing them to get health treatment. The fact is we should spend more time and effort cracking down on the Mr Bigs’ and criminal gangs who traffic drugs than users and addicts who should be helped to recover, not put behind bars.”
