Alcohol and substance abuse crimes (FOI)

Request

Please advise how much crime in Jersey was in relation to alcohol or substance abuse.

Response

The correlation between recorded crime and alcohol or substance abuse is difficult to measure. A number of crime investigations never identify a suspect or offender and so it is not possible to determine if alcohol or another drug could be a factor. In many cases there is a time delay between when the crime is committed and any suspect or offender being arrested, by which time they may no longer be under the influence. 

States of Jersey Police assess levels of alcohol and other drugs of all persons arrested and taken into police custody. This is considered to be the most reliable way to understand the correlation, however, for reasons explained above, this is not perfect. 

During Quarter 4 of 2021, States of Jersey Police moved away from measuring the intoxication level using the custody officer’s discretion (sober, mildly intoxicated, moderately intoxicated or highly intoxicated) to a medical questionnaire-style approach. 

States of Jersey Police are able to provide the following two data sets on the attached Excel spreadsheet (every row of the spreadsheet is an arrest) -

Tab 1

Data from 2008 to 27 October 2021 where the alcohol intoxication level was determined by the custody officer, through examination and questioning. This data set includes the date, age and sex of the person in custody, their level of alcohol intoxication, and whether they are believed to be under the influence of another drug.

Tab 2

Data from 27 October 2021 to the date of request, where the detainee has been requested to answer a list of medical-related questions. This data set includes the date, age and sex of the person in custody plus whether they are under the influence of alcohol or another drug at the time. In many cases, where the detainee is too intoxicated to provide a reliable answer themselves, the custody officer will record their own observation. 

Spreadsheet.xlsx

Article 25 of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied as all personal information associated with the responses given by detainees has been withheld.

Article applied

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3) In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.