ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with local policing, though in the somewhat different context of demands on the police, consumerism and performance evaluation. The two main aspects to this context both point to the significance of the locale as the focus of drug policy efforts. First, the Conservative government’s five-pronged anti-drugs strategy identified national, regional and local levels of response. A second contextual aspect is that since the early 1980s the police have been faced with government requirements for economy, efficiency and effectiveness. With regard to the local and day-to-day level it seems that we can speak of demands on the police as realised through various levels. Some typical means are through emergency 999 calls through to non-urgent calls, personal communication with officers, visits to the police station and letters. In Empire Road the police could presumably have responded through either retrospective or prospective methods. The former could have entailed increased and visible patrolling or surveillance through CCTV cameras.
