An electronic tag scheme to put lager louts either on the wagon or in the slammer has been such a success in Southwark it is now being rolled out across the country.
A year-long trial saw over a hundred nuisance binge-drink offenders fitted with the new ‘booze bracelets’ in this borough, Lambeth, Croydon and Sutton.
In the last year, fourteen people in Southwark have been slapped with alcohol abstinence monitoring requirements’ banning them from drinking for up to 120 days at a time. Their abstinence was monitored by an electronic tag which tested for alcohol levels in their sweat every 30 minutes.
To date, none of Southwark’s ‘alcoffenders’, brought on charges including assault, driving under the influence and criminal damage, have breached their orders – a compliance rate significantly better than with traditional community orders, according to the Mayor’s office.
The Ministry of Justice now says it will expand the scheme nationwide.
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “It’s now time to bring this exciting new crime fighting technology to the rest of the capital, and help remove the scourge of alcohol-fuelled criminal behaviour from all of London’s streets.”