A PROJECT which used ‘sobriety tags’ to tackle alcohol-fuelled crime across North Yorkshire has been a success - according to a report by the National Centre for Social Research.

The scheme, part funded by Julia Mulligan, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PCC), used the latest alcohol monitoring technology, also known as ‘sobriety tags’, to tackle alcohol associated offending.

Courts were able to order offenders to wear the tags by executing an Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) as part of a community or suspended sentence imposed on those who commit crimes while drunk.

The ankle bracelets, which detect alcohol levels, alerted the authorities when the wearer had breached the abstinence order and the offender was returned to court.

A review of the project, which also took place in Humberside and Lincolnshire, was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) who noted that compliance with the AAMR was high.

It found that 94 per cent of tagged offenders successfully completed the requirement and 97.4 per cent of all the days monitored were free of alcohol.

Ms Mulligan, said: “This has proved to be a successful pilot, with many lessons learned along the way.

"We know alcohol can play a key part in offending for some people, and this appears to have been a positive intervention - reducing offending markedly among those wearing tags.

"This appears to have been particularly true of domestic violence incidents, something which I hugely welcome given my commitment to reduce violence against women and girls.

“There were areas where the pilot was less successful, with simply not enough tags being used in North Yorkshire compared to elsewhere.

"If we are to roll this programme out in the longer term we would need to learn those lessons and make sure we improved our partnership working, making it clear to everyone involved the benefits these tags can bring.

“These tags have the opportunity to make North Yorkshire a safer place, but there is more work to do and I look forward to seeing the further analysis.”

The pilot was carried out from June 2017 until April 2019.