NEW ORLEANS NATION:

Drunken violence hitting frontline policing (GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN, 9/06/05, The Scotsman)

LEVELS of drunken violence on Scotland's streets are now so bad that police no longer have enough time or resources to deal with many routine duties, a senior officer has admitted.

Malcolm Dickson, the Deputy Chief Constable of the Lothian and Borders force, says that more and more police officers are needed to deal with drunk young people using the streets as "playgrounds of violence", leaving fewer police available to serve the majority of peaceful residents who need their assistance.

And he criticised government plans to introduce new legislation to liberalise pub licensing laws, claiming that it would only be feasible if there was a huge investment in additional policing.