This toolkit aims to:
Support UK police forces to tackle alcohol-related harm. It is not telling police forces or individual police officers what they should do; its aim is simply to set out options that could be used. It achieves this by:
• Identifying how police officers can work strategically to reduce the impact of alcohol on crime and the non-crime aspects of policing
• Describing the interventions that frontline officers can pursue to tackle the various forms of alcohol-related harm
• Laying out the available data on the impact of alcohol misuse on policing
• Supporting other agencies to engage with the police in tackling that harm.

The focus of this toolkit is the whole spectrum of alcohol’s impact, from offending associated with occasional binge drinking in the night-time economy (NTE) through to dependent drinkers with complex needs. It will embrace both the crime and non-crime aspects of policing (e.g. safeguarding). However, this toolkit does not include the role of alcohol in domestic abuse and sexual violence or issues such as ‘spiking’. Nor has it included licensing offences such as the fraudulent sales of alcohol, or the detail of non-police licensing policy and practice.

This document is not designed to be read as a single document, rather, it is a resource that police officers can dip into, in order to develop responses.

Section 1 is a checklist that:
• Sets out the range of interventions and approaches that police forces and police officers can use to tackle alcohol-related harm.
• Can be used by police forces or Police and Crime Commissioners as a self-audit tool to consider whether the full range of interventions is being pursued.
• Can be used by partner agencies in the health, social care, housing or other settings as a tool to review what they could do to support the police to tackle alcohol-related harm. This checklist links to the information in sections 2-5.

Sections 2-5 are the core of the document. They consist of a series of sub-sections that provide information and useful links covering the key themes covered in the checklist. 

Sections 6-8 set out the available data on the impact of alcohol use disorders on policing. This is not to persuade readers of the importance of this issue but rather to support police officers at all levels to build a case for action within and beyond the police force. It will also assist partner agencies in supporting the police.

Section 9 is a leaflet that addresses frontline officers about how they can tackle alcohol-related harm.