We spoke with Nick Herçeg, Chief Inspector at Thames Valley Police, about their soon to be implemented Drug Testing on Arrest programme.
What was the inspiration behind bringing drug testing on arrest to Thames Valley?
Thames Valley Police have not used drug testing on arrest, which is a pre-charge power, for a number of years now and I was not able to find a definitive reason for why it was dropped. The latest raft of Ministry of Justice funding provided an opportunity to have conversations about using this power. In my time working at West Yorkshire police, I remember the same people coming through custody and despite drug testing taking place; it did not seem to achieve much.
I wanted to explore this pathway again but for the right reasons, ensuring that we sought some opinions on how we could build this, but primarily making sure that we did not set people off on a pathway that was not going to be realistic. We recognised that for some, the time of self-actualisation had not been reached yet, but also sending people to an appointment within 48 hours of being at custody, that might be a 45-minute bus ride away, was not taking into account the background of that individual and how they've come into the process.
How does it work?
Often, when someone tests positive at arrest or custody they get given an appointment to attend after they have left. With our approach, a Liaison and Diversion professional will seek to carry out all of our initial assessments in their office hours and one of our Healthcare Professionals will do assessments overnight. A person may be required to provide a sample based on their offending. If testing positive, they can then be required to attend an assessment interview and then if the assessment interview deems it relevant, they are requested or required to attend a follow up program/intervention or further appointment.
It was important to work with partners early, particularly NHS and Liaison and Diversion, who are able to engage with individuals and encourage them to see the benefit of this pathway as it can open doors into treatment and support. We’re not hiding the fact that there is still a penalty if somebody does refuse to completely to engage, but a lot of emphasis is put on the encouragement phase and making individuals aware of the opportunities available. We have scoped out the possibility for opioids substitute therapy and the provision of methadone and other medication in custody for further support.
What have you learned so far?
We are fortunate in having been able to draw direction and learning from Hampshire Police, with whom we have a number of joint operational commands. A big thing for us is being able to close down that window between a positive test in custody and somebody wanting help at that point. This ties in with the departure lounge theory - getting the individual to see a medical professional before they leave custody, making a point to get them signposted to services they can engage with.
Moving forward there are opportunities to tier our approach particularly with non-trigger offenses. Offences such as drug driving where they might be a one-time incident and individuals would benefit from attending a course and having a less lenient approach. We are keen to see how that lands as we go forward and explore other options such as using DrugLink as a referral but also an outcome.
How will this process work alongside Out of Court Resolutions?
In terms of using it as an out of court disposal, if for example, a person has tested positive and a decision is to be made to charge or caution , thought would be taken about how we can address the drug use in the conditions and how the person will engage outside of custody. There is a lot of scope around that to ensure we have as many options as possible for legitimate outcomes. There is a body of research linking legitimacy to outcomes and reduction in offending.
What are your next steps after implementation?
We have planned a graduated roll out from one of our custody suites in Maidenhead so that we can spot opportunities and build it in with the need to go and live across the force at the beginning of 2025. We will have a short period of testing those with non-trigger offences in order to get an idea of our baseline and what that engagement looks like, before we roll forward around April next year. We are hoping to mirror Hampshire police in that their positive test rate is 60/70% in custody because they are testing the right people. We do not plan on cracking down on every person who test positive, if we know there is a care plan in place and we can assess that, it is more important to flag whom they have engaged with and decide how we can maintain the flow between agencies.