More than £600,000 has been given to Thames Valley Police to help people escape the downward spiral of drugs and crime.

The award of £624,000 by the Home Office will be spent during the next three years to develop schemes to treat addicts.

Det Insp Ian Robinson, the force's drugs strategy coordinator, said he was pleased the grant had been made.

He said: "We need to tackle the causes behind crime and hopefully in the long-term this will reduce the amount of crime which people with drugs habits are committing."

He said arrest referral schemes worked by giving people who were arrested the opportunity to speak to a referral worker in the police custody suite and to get help and treatment for their addiction. "The scheme aims to create an additional support network for people with a drug habit," he said. "It is not an alternative course of action and if they have committed an offence it will be dealt with in the normal way. If we can work with local drugs counselling services and local health authorities, we can start to make a positive difference in the lives of our local communities, who are affected by drugs-related crime and also those who have addictions."

He said the work would form part of the force's long-term priority to protect communities from drug-related crime.

It would also support education and treatment programmes aimed at preventing drug misuse, especially among young people.

"We will carefully be monitoring results in the next three years to look more closely at the links between drugs and crime," he added.

Story date: Tuesday 07 December

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