Shock reality of notorious Exeter street laid bare

It's 12 noon and the drinking session is well and truly under way in St Sidwell's Chapel garden. Insp Nathan Johnson takes a bottle away from one of the men happily guzzling in public and pours the contents onto the grass - ignoring his grief-stricken plea not to do it.

Exeter's new top cop has a plan to reclaim the city's trouble spot streets. Priority resources are being targeted at Sidwell Street - the popular neighbourhood in the centre of the city where brilliant independent shopping meets open air drinking and anti-social behaviour.

You can't sit around in the centre of Exeter and get drunk - a Public Spaces Protection Order says you can't - yet everyone here is well oiled. St Sidwell's garden has become the saddest al fresco party spot in the city. The seven or eight men and women sat on benches are consumed with addiction and hopelessness. They are often loud, sometimes angry, unpredictable, unwanted, a nuisance and not best pleased to see Insp Johnson or to be filmed on camera.

Members of the public walk gingerly between the benches along the public path, they do seem pleased to see a police officer here. They're going to work, shopping, having lunch, spending their hard-earned cash. A Devon and Cornwall Police van is also parked near the entrance of the gardens. It's here to give reassurance that this is a safe place to visit.

"People think we're causing problems but we’re not," says one man. He doesn't look in the best of shape, eyelids drooping under the weight of alcohol he's consumed. "I'm always friendly to people when they walk past."

At the centre of Insp Johnson's tactical plan for Exeter is reclaiming spaces. The spots, like Sidwell Street, parts of Cathedral Green/South Street and the High Street where people don't like to walk for fear of making eye contact with the wrong street attached person.

Want the latest Devon breaking news and top stories first? Click here to join our WhatsApp group. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice

Traders have told DevonLive their lives are being made a misery by drunken and drug-addled groups of men and women spilling out onto Sidwell Street and intimidating shoppers. They stumble into shops and urinate, fight amongst themselves, issue threats, steal from charity shops. The church garden is one popular spot. Another is a bus stop near Subway. Traders are petitioning for its removal.

Insp Johnson is a former lead of the tactical firearms team. He knows what 'tough' policing is all about. But he says sweeping the area clean of people existing on the margins of our city will not make the problem disappear.

During a walk along Sidwell Street with DevonLive he says the job of making the city safe is only partly about arrests and enforcing the law. If there is to be a long-term solution it must involve drug support agencies, the criminal justice system, the council, housing, traders, even the wider public. Pretty much everyone who wants to make the city a better place to live.

He says: "I've been here three months and came in with some fresh eyes. First thing to say is police aren't the solution to an addiction or the deprivation issue. We can't solve addition because that's not our remit. We basically have the ability to disperse people, arrest people or contain, those are the powers police bring to the party.

"We'll do that. But the first message is that police aren't the only answer. I want to counter the rhetoric of we just need to police our way out of the problem, or that we need more and more police. I don't want to live in a police state, that's why I live in the UK. I want live in a state where I feel free and safe to go about my business.

"We absolutely have a role to play in making the people of Exeter, businesses, tourists, students, people walking down the street, whoever, feel safe especially in some of our more contested areas.

"I want to reclaim the streets but not necessarily through tough policing. I'm a massive fan of foot patrol. I hope you will see more police out on foot. I'm deploying people more effectively. The neighbourhood team that I've joined are first class. I'm hugely impressed what they did since I arrived."

Sidwell Street has become a contested area - contested between those trying to earn a living, shoppers, families and the groups of men and women hanging around in St Sidwell's garden or sleeping in doorways, sometimes spilling out among the public, shouting, swearing and off their heads by the time local coffee shops are setting out their pavement tables.

Many visitors say they have become a blight on a street which in every other respect is thriving. Over the last decade a cafe culture has slowly grown, cosmopolitan businesses fill the units from John Lewis to the Odeon and beyond. There are shops here that you won't find anywhere else in the city and traders working all hours to make it a success. Some accuse the police of not doing enough to stamp the problem out.

Insp Johnson acknowledges it must be "really hard" for traders on the front line trying to encourage customers into the city centre, only for them to meet aggressive, drunken louts.

"Absolutely there is an issue with anti-social behaviour here," he says. "Although anti-social behaviour is often regarded as a low level crime it actually affects far more people in their everyday lives than other serious crimes.

"The problem is from about 30 people. But each one of those 30 people is still a person. What I would like to see is each one of them delivered from their addiction somehow and that they are redeemed by another means because the criminal justice system isn't necessarily the answer. It's a stopgap and it gives respite to other people and I absolutely want to be able to use the full sweep of powers police have. But continually arresting someone and them going to prison for six weeks won't solve their addiction.

"If you solve the root cause of the problem we'll be in a much better place. Its about understanding yes there is a problem, the police definitely have a part to play, but we are quite niche and there lots of other people who can play a part as well."

The police tactical plan for Exeter, including Sidwell Street, has three parts. Reclaiming contested spaces, building local networks and marginalising perpetrators.

"If we can reclaim these contested spaces that's key," he says. "You will see more police on foot. In addition to what we have as a police team, which hasn't grown, we've got neighbourhood support teams coming online very soon and they'll be based out of Exeter."

This will involve a sergeant and a team of five focusing on shoplifting, anti-social behaviour, drug dealing in the city centre, violence against women and girls or night-time economy. There's also funding in the pipeline from the Home Office to tackle crime hotspots - four have been identified in Exeter. Sidwell Street is one, the others are Cathedral Green/South Street, High Street, and Queen Street.

The theory is that police spend 15 minutes in hotspot areas. In Exeter they'll be walking into shops, showing an increased visible presence, speaking to people.

"You'll see the police van out today," says the Inspector. The idea is to reassure the public that police are here. Insp Johnson says it's not so much about more policing, just better policing.

"Although we are only based three minutes around the corner the sergeant had the simple idea of doing the paperwork in the van."

The second part of the strategy is all about building networks. This has already started in Sidwell Street. Regular meetings take place involving traders with a focus on identifying ongoing issues. Each person or organisation doing one thing to deal with it.

Insp Johnson wants to have 'hyper-local' networks in each hotspot sharing information and coming up with solutions. In Sidwell Street this involves not only traders, but Colab [a community hub in King William Street] the St Sidwell's Community Centre and other groups.

The final part of the plan is about focusing on the people causing the problems and getting them the help they need - ideally before they descend into a downward spiral of crime. Giving them support with housing or whatever acute issue they face. For some, a short prison sentence might be the action that breaks the cycle, others might need a plan once they are released.

Police do still have an armoury of powers to deal with troublemakers. A Public Spaces Protection Order covers much of the city centre allowing police to arrest those drinking or swearing in public. Dispersal orders can also be used. Defendants have appeared in court this week for flouting their orders. But Insp Johnson says "the problem doesn't go away".

What the city needs, he says, is a joined-up approach dealing with addiction as a root cause, offence and consequences. Police have a role to play enforcing the law but the whole plan can only work if all agencies can work together.

"We're pretty good at arresting people," says the inspector. "But we're not very good at dealing with addiction or liaising with marginalised communities. Some people would like us to lock people up and throw away key.

"These are still people. They have often grown up in care and adverse childhood experiences. They have a chaotic lifestyle. If you've been abused and your lifestyle is one with no prospects, living day-by-day and no hope at the end of it how would you cope? Would you use a substance to cope?"

One of the most depressing phrases you will hear from traders and visitors in Sidwell Street is 'It happens everywhere'. Should we just accept a future where our shopping streets are magnets for street-attached people?

"I think it is a problem that is solvable.," says the Insp. "It is relatively straightforward to get them the help and support they need. I don't want people to think it will always be like this and we'll just have to put up with it because we don't need to put up with this. We want these individuals helped, we want people to feel safe in Exeter and we want an Exeter city centre to not accept that behaviour and not become deadened to it.

"For some people we'll be a bit too heavy handed, for others we won't be heavy enough. That's always the challenge. Expectations are very different. If in 12 months people don't feel safer then I'll have to change my tactical plan because I'm not winning the war.

"I suppose we're the enforcer we do that part of it. I quite like living in a city where if I fell on hard times I'd be looked after, so long as my behaviour is acceptable. That's the key thing really."