IT WAS just a normal day in a normal Scottish town. On Friday, 11 January, 2008, in Livingston, West Lothian, 15 teenagers aged between 13 and 15 were picked up by undercover police for underage drinking. One, a 13-year-old boy, was so drunk he had to be rushed to hospital.
Just another day, then, for Sergeant Steven Duncan, community safety officer responsible for a string of operations targeting the problem. Here is how it went.
• 2pm: Start of the operation, timed to coincide with the end of a school half-da
y. Nine plain clothes officers began foot patrols, looking for youngsters drinking. Their main concern was the teenagers' welfare, as Sgt Duncan, one of the officers, explained.
"We were worried that children were putting themselves in danger by drinking too much. There have been tragic cases in the past and we want to minimise the risk of this happening again."
• 3pm: First drunken youth spotted – a 15-year-old boy walking on a path in the Dedridge area with an older boy and swigging from a bottle of Buckfast.
"It was fairly obvious he was under the influence. His eyes were dilating and his speech was slurred. We took him into the police station for his own safety and contacted his parents."
• 4:30pm: A group of girls aged 14 and 15 found hanging around outside a shop. As police officers approached them they began acting shiftily.
"We recovered a bag hidden in bushes. Inside was a crate of beer and 18 bottles of alco-pop. Two of the girls admitted it was theirs," says Sgt Duncan.
The girls were taken in and their parents questioned. They got a stern talking to – a step Sgt Duncan said made it unlikely they would be caught again.
• 5pm: A gang of youths were noticed drinking in a playpark. The police officers spoke to them and one of them began shouting and swearing. The boy, aged 15, was arrested.
• 7pm: Two 13-year-old lads spotted in the centre of town, near a supermarket. A couple of officers approached them but they ran off.
"There was no doubt they were drinking," said Sgt Duncan. "One of them was particularly unsteady on his feet. He could barely string a few words together."
They were carrying a bottle of fizzy juice – the giveaway of the under-age drinker. Using alcohol-testing strips, the officers found that the apparently harmless juice had been "diluted" with dangerously strong cider.
"We took them in but it quickly became obvious that one of the lads needed medical attention, so he was taken to hospital."
Sgt Duncan insisted the day was a fairly typical one since he initiated the undercover foot patrols.
"In my experience alcohol is very much a factor in the problems that we encounter, both among young people and adults."
The full article contains 494 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
