Dob in a dealer

The Bradford District Drugs Team and the ‘Dob In a Dealer' campaign has been in operation for five and a half years now.

Dob in a dealer was set up in 2002 and has gone from strength to strength, netting over 2,400 arrests and seizing drugs with a total street value of £8.5million.

Since August 2002, the drugs team in the Bradford area has averaged more than 1 arrest a day. That's 2,403 people, with 1,532 of those arrested for Class A drugs trafficking.

The team has issued over 700 drugs warrants, carried out in excess of 2,000 separate enforcement operations and charged more than 1,300 people with drugs trafficking.

Over 6,000 people have called Crimestoppers in response to ‘Dob in a Dealer', to anonymously pass on information about suspected drug dealing. The Bradford District Drugs Team is part funded by Safer Communities Bradford, enabling the team to be twice as large as it otherwise would be, thus greatly increasing its effectiveness. The Team pro-actively targets street level dealing through continual arrests and specialist operations.

Chief Supt Allan Doherty, said: "A large number of dealers have been arrested and put behind bars, an effective strategy for helping addicts to kick their habit has been maintained and ‘Dob in a Dealer' has given people confidence to report drug dealers, helping us to clean up their communities.

"The importance of this initiative in attacking the illegal drugs trade at all levels cannot be overestimated. We have seen some excellent results and look forward to improving even further in the next five years."

Det Insp Neil Benstead has led the Bradford District Drugs Team since 2003. He said drug dealers were now in no doubt about how difficult it was to try to ply their trade in the city. "Drug dealers will now tell us that it used to be easy to sell drugs in Bradford, but that it isn't anymore.

"I believe that one of the keys to our success is that over the last five years we have worked very closely with people living in Bradford. They are now encouraged to pass information on to us because, of course, they, more than anyone else, have an interest in their city being rid of drugs. This is very much a partnership approach and to this end, the team works at the heart of the community, alongside neighbourhood policing teams."