The Tower Project - Blackpool

The Tower Project is a persistent offender targeting initiative, established in 2002 in Blackpool, a large town in the North West of England, which had the fifth highest number of drug-related deaths per year in the country. It is a multi-agency project based upon an assertive and intensive supervision model that combines drug treatment and lifestyle support with police disruption and targeting tactics.

The project was developed taking account of lessons learned from other persistent offender programmes both in the UK and the Netherlands. What was particularly innovative about this programme was the range of partners involved in the project that enabled a much greater degree of involvement, support and management. The project followed offenders who were both in prison and out in the community; it also provided immediate access to drug treatment and other support.

Individuals were identified through offender profiling, and on a voluntary basis were brought onto the scheme. A programme of support was designed for each of them depending on their situation. The aim was to progressively reduce the usage of illegal drugs by the target group, and thus the amount spent on these drugs, taking account of the correlation between the amount of criminality committed in order to ‘feed’ their drug use.

The project started in 2002.
Last review: December 2006.