Information sharing for tackling drug problems in the London Borough of Harrow
(Harrow Drugs Action Team, August 1999)
The Harrow DAT (Drugs Action Team) Information Group was initially established
in February 1998. The Group’s aim was to address the development of a local substance
misuse database, a requirement of the White Paper, ‘Tackling Drugs Together’, with
the objective to assess the nature and scale of local drug problems in Harrow. This
remit was then extended to encompass the Crime and Disorder Act, 1998. Information
the Group wanted to bring together included,
Metropolitan Police reported incidents of crime
Police 999 calls for service,
London Ambulance Service call outs
Clients in drug and alcohol treatment
Young people in the criminal justice system
School exclusions
1991 Census data
and Department of Environment, Transport and Regions deprivation data.
Referencing this information by its location proved to be the common denominator
that would enable the integration of this data. This would then allow the Group to
more clearly identify the nature of the local drugs problem and generate outputs in
a format that could be easily understood by all members of the partnership. This
process has allowed the Harrow DAT Information Group to identify where the main drug
related crime and substance misuse problems are, enable problems and solutions to
be defined more easily, and aid the targeting and allocation of resources for substance
misuse programs.
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