Kent cops want to breath-test pedestrians

British teenagers could be breathalysed on the street as part of a radical attempt to reduce alcohol-related crime.

Police in Kent are studying an initiative used in Rotterdam, Holland, where youths are stopped by police and given warnings if they are found with alcohol on their breath.

Chief Inspector Des Keers said Medway Police - which has received Home Office funding to pioneer ways of tackling alcohol abuse - would look at using "best practice from police forces in Europe such as breath testing pedestrians".

In the Rotterdam trial teen drinkers who tested positive for alcohol were taken to the police station and their parents called.

But Federation of Licensed Victuallers' Associations chief executive Tony Payne is not keen on the idea.

He said: "It concerns me because a lot of responsible parents allow children to have a drink with a meal at home or in a restaurant, which is legal. I would have thought the police had other things to do."

Heather Mason, licensee of the Man of Kent in Rochester, Medway, added: "You would get a lot of police going up to kids that aren't doing a thing wrong. Meanwhile, have you solved the problem with the bunch that are in the park, drinking vodka they've nicked from their parents' cupboard?"

Inspector Peter Raggers, of Rotterdam police, presented details of the trial at a recent seminar in Medway to tackle alcohol related crime.

He said it acted as a deterrent for underage drinking and was popular with the licensed trade.

"Licensees responded well because the problem is they get a lot of the public coming in who are drunk already. And then they get the blame for their behaviour," he said.

Medway Police is conducting a feasibility study to see how the Dutch scheme might be implemented in the UK.