Derry police chief backs addiction centre saying people in crisis among biggest policing challenges

Chief Superintendent Goddard, who took over as the Derry and Strabane Area Police Commander in August told the ‘Journal’ that addiction - often stemming from social deprivation – is probably the biggest challenge facing the police service in the city.

“When I speak to my officers here, it's about the level of vulnerability, the level of mental health crisis, the level of addiction - the amount of time we seem to spend at the hospital or the bridges, or one or the other, and if we get someone off the bridge they tend to go to hospital for assessment.

"That whole area of vulnerability, mental health crisis, deprivation is probably the biggest challenge in this area socially,” he observes.

Ch/Supt. Goddard said resources are often tied up dealing with people who have fallen through the cracks of the social care system.

"We have young people going missing from children's homes and we have to spend time locating them and making sure that they are safe and returned.

"It's stuff that at one point in time wasn't considered to be police work but now in that whole social spectrum so much of our time is spent dealing with that.

"We are the service of 24/7 356 first and last resort and many of the other services, which I get are under pressure and suffering budget cuts and reductions, they are not routinely available at those times when people are in crisis.”

The new Derry police chief was born in Lancashire and grew up in York. The majority of his 29 year police career has been spent in the north with postings in Belfast, Cookstown and Armagh.

He says the level of social need in Derry and Strabane appears more pronounced than anywhere else.

“It feels like it is higher here than elsewhere. Maybe in previous jobs I didn't touch on it as much. But certainly, the challenges of the bridges, they seem to be a magnet for people in distress.”

Nearly three years ago the ‘New Decade New Approach’ agreement included a commitment for additional funding for an addiction centre in Derry. Northern Ireland Office (NIO) Minister Steve Baker recently recommitted to £1m in additional funding for one.

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Ch/Supt. Goddard told the ‘Journal’ he ‘absolutely’ supports this development.

"We are continuing to have these conversations with partners. We have a really good model of a support hub here, a beacon model, for multi-agency working with crisis support. It needs further and greater investment in a crisis centre for those sort of functions to become 24 hours or certainly 16/18 hours where we can work together.

"I think that would probably have some of the greatest impact on improving people's experiences and quality of life here, internally, as well as in the communities we serve.

"It's the biggest challenge. Even through that vulnerability, when we look at the more backward looking issues, like dissident republican terrorism, it is through some of that deprivation, vulnerability and lack of opportunity that people can exert coercive control and get people involved in things they really shouldn’t have any interest in so many years after the Good Friday Agreement.”

New Derry police commander Chief Superintendent Nigel Goddard appointed