Soft drugs policy led to less street crime, more police time - and a torrent of abuse

Brian Paddick was the pioneer of a controversial drugs scheme that allowed people caught in possession of small amounts of cannabis in Lambeth to be let off with a warning.

The move, designed as an alternative to arrest and prosecution, was intended to free officers to deal with emergency calls and to tackle crack and heroin abuse.

But the year-long pilot scheme ended in August and will be replaced by a tougher national system in which officers will make arrests for possession if they fear public disorder, if the drug is smoked openly or if it is found on anyone under 17. People caught three times in possession of cannabis will also be arrested.

The project in Lambeth opened with high hopes, particularly from within the community where local surveys showed there was strong support for the trial. Mr Paddick said a Mori poll showed only 7 per cent of white residents, 10 per cent of black and 7 per cent of Asian residents interviewed opposed the scheme.

However, senior officers began to cool to the scheme amid claims that drug dealers and users were being attracted to the area because the project was not extended London-wide.

The head of Scotland Yard's drugs directorate, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Michael Fuller, claimed there had been reports of pupils arriving at school "stoned" and believed the police approach sent mixed messages to the public.

Mr Fuller, who gradually became less supportive of the scheme, said: "Many parents of teenagers are raising concerns ... that the current perception of liberalisation and relaxation of the drug laws created by the scheme will inevitably result in more young people [and adults] experimenting in using cannabis and possibly harder drugs."

Mr Paddick denied the claims, saying that fears of children being more at risk "may be a perception rather than a reality".

The policies resulted in an increase in arrests for hard drugs and a fall in levels of street crime and burglary. Official figures showed that the scheme had not transformed the district into a haven of drug dealing, as critics had claimed.

In the first six months, officers and civilian staff saved more than 2,500 hours of police time. There was a 19 per cent increase in arrests of class A drug dealers, but the number or arrests for dealing in cannabis also went up by 11 per cent during that period. Mr Fuller also acknowledged that police time saved by issuing warnings was significant. In the first six months of the trial, a total of 1,350 police hours were saved, the equivalent of two officers on the street.

The deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Ian Blair, said the experiment was a success "in statistical terms" but there had been a failure to explain what the experiment was trying to achieve.

The line-up for and against Paddick

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, March

"Brian Paddick is popular and [has] the support of the community in Brixton ... it's, I think, a witch-hunt."

Leading article, The Daily Telegraph, 3 May 2002

"As a right-on copper with anarchist sympathies and as someone alleged to have allowed the use of cannabis in his own home, [he] was not the right person to lead the decriminalisation of the drug."

Canon Richard Truss, Dean of Lambeth, March

"Commander Paddick seems the sort of person who would take initiatives that are desperately needed in the borough. We need someone with imagination in policing ... I admire him."

Richard Littlejohn, The Sun, 22 February

"People are crying out for strong policing. We want Robocop, not one of the Village People. And what do we get? A professional homosexual with a degree in wheel-clamping, who thinks cocaine and ecstasy are harmless, finds anarchy attractive and is in the habit of pouring out his heart to complete strangers on the internet. Not so much 'Hello, hello, hello' as 'Hello, sailor'."

Lee Jasper, the adviser on policing to Ken Livingstone, London's Mayor, March

"He's a tremendously effective officer and his unique rapport with the community has got to be exactly what the Met is looking for to cope with policing such a diverse population."

Melanie Phillips, Daily Mail, 27 March

"Paddick is being cynically marketed as a mascot for two incendiary libertarian causes – drug legalisation and gay rights. The fact that he embodies both makes Paddick a toxic symbol for those who want to wreak havoc on an orderly society."

Bob Gould, in a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 11 July 2002

"I recently did a two-year stint as a patrol sergeant in Brixton. The extent of control on the streets, and on the lives of youngsters, exercised by drug dealers was shocking; and that was before the 'Paddick experiment'. Now, the decent and law-abiding residents of Brixton tell us the situation is infinitely worse."