The government is is funding the roll out of fingerprint security at the doors of pubs and clubs in major English cities.Edited to add:
Funding is being offered to councils that want to have their pubs keep a regional black list of known trouble makers. The fingerprint network installed in February by South Somerset District Council in Yeovil drinking holes is being used as the show case...
The council had assumed it was its duty under the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) to reduce drunken disorder by fingerprinting drinkers in the town centre.
Some licensees were not happy to have their punters fingerprinted, but are all now apparently behind the idea. Not only does the council let them open later if they join the scheme, but the system costs them only £1.50 a day to run.
Oh, and they are also coerced into taking the fingerprint system. New licences stipulate that a landlord who doesn't install fingerprint security and fails to show a "considerable" reduction in alcohol-related violence, will be put on report by the police and have their licences revoked.
Ralf Bendrath kindly posted a link to his detailed analysis of this measure.
Samizdata have an enlightening take on the abuse of regulatory authority behind these rules.
This is part of a larger trend, which goes back to way before Rudy Giuliani and his model of "zero tolerance". See my blog post for more background info and thoughts about this.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me that the Register is going the way of the Onion?
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