'It's about protecting people and showing how unacceptable and dangerous it is': Night of action and awareness across Wolverhampton around dangers of spiking
It was a night of education and action for police officers, bars and patrons in Wolverhampton city centre around the dangers of spiking and ways to prevent it.
Leading members of West Midlands Police took part in a walk around Wolverhampton city centre on Thursday night with officers, city centre representatives and members of spiking charity Spike Aware UK to visit bars and speak to staff and customers about drink spiking.
Spiking is giving someone alcohol or drugs without them knowing or agreeing, for example, in their drink or with a needle, and, in the most recent statistics by Drinkaware, around 2 per cent of UK adults, equivalent to nearly one million people, said they believed they had been a victim of drinking spiking in the last year, rising slightly to 3 per cent among younger adults aged 18 to 34.
It was a chance for the force to learn more about the tools available to help prevent drink spiking, including sealable lids that can be placed over a glass or a bottle and a litmus test which, if it changes colour, shows a drink has been spiked, and help learn from people across the city of their own experiences from spiking.
The walk around saw Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Lucy Kirwan, who is the force lead for spiking, and Spike Aware founders Colin and Mandy Mackie visit the Slug and Lettuce, The PACK, Goose in the City, the Moon Under Water, Wolverhampton University's student union and the Planet Nightclub across the evening as part of a partnership between the force and the charity.
Each visit saw Colin and Mandy speak to bar staff and managers of the different bars about the procedures and tools they had around prevention of spiking, with DCI Kirwan also talking to staff and customers about what the force was doing.
They also spent time with customers to learn about their own experiences, which included one man who said he thought had been spiked at least four times and two men who said they had once been unable to speak on a night out despite only having a couple of drinks and realised that they must have been spiked.
