Keeping the peace

When the Horse and Groom pub in Tooting, south-west London, closed some time ago, it did so without any fuss because it was replaced by a more modern, less spit-and-sawdust bar.

Located near the less-than-salubrious Tooting Broadway Underground station, the pub in its heyday was renowned for having to deal with the occasional drunkard, but also for the ability of its bar staff to deal with, shall we say, over-exuberant customers.

"There was one evening I was in there with some friends," recalls one awe-struck drinker, "when a fight broke out, and the barman, who was pouring a pint, in one movement had vaulted over the bar, whipped off his tie, broken it up and was back behind the bar before the pint overflowed. We'd hardly even had time to react before it was all over. It was very impressive."

Such a calm approach in dealing with violent, drink-fuelled disorder often comes from bitter experience - and having the confidence and presence of mind to know what to do next.

Sadly more common, perhaps, is the experience of one Will Archer, who was working at an unnamed pub in Essex during the Euro 96 football championships. He later told the Guardian newspaper about his experiences.

"This bloke had been drinking in the pub all afternoon with his wife and children, watching the football. They went home, and he was left staggering around the place, annoying customers," he said.

"I refused to serve him, and suddenly he was over the bar and tried to punch my head. He missed but got me by the throat. He grabbed me and pushed me against a wall, then headbutted me, which dislocated my jaw, broke my nose and split my lip.

"The worst thing was, the owner didn't back me at all. The man got let off with a caution," he complained.

Amid the media frenzy over 24-hour opening and binge-drinking, led by newspapers such as the Daily Mail, the difficulties faced by bar and pub staff from violent and abusive customers have often been overlooked.

Yet do the figures back up these fears and the images we see of late-night drink-fuelled violence in our city centres? Certainly, the latest official British Crime Survey statistics make interesting reading.

The 2004-05 survey shows levels of violent crime decreasing and levels of antisocial behaviour remaining stable, although one in six people said they perceived a high level of disorder in their area.

This is not only a perception among the public, either. Malcolm Eidmans, secretary of the crime prevention scheme Pubwatch, says he has seen an upsurge in landlords seeking advice and wanting to get involved.

The scheme, which runs at a national and local level, is organised by licensees within a community.

Members are linked by a telephone, radio or pager system, which enables them to pass on messages about criminal or disorderly behaviour quickly and efficiently.

What you get in the papers is out of all proportion to the reality on the ground, stresses Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, although that is no reason for the industry to be complacent.

"There is no doubt there is some truth that there is an issue about young people misbehaving when they have had too much to drink, and that has tarred the reputation of many town centres," he concedes.

"But that is completely unfair when it is extended to the licensed trade. The new laws will settle down, but we are in uncharted waters. In a year or so we will wonder what all the fuss was about.

"The worst scenario is that it will be the same, just later on in the evening - for instance, if everyone switches to 12pm closing. But I suspect the natural inclination of many people will simply be to go home," he suggests.

Certainly, speak to most of the pub companies and they are distinctly reluctant to get drawn in to the debate.

"It is very hard to say how the new licensing laws are going to change things," says Andy Burnyeat of JD Wetherspoon, in what is a pretty typical comment from the trade. "I was speaking to one landlord in Leamington Spa who said that, because hours would now be staggered, people would vary their evenings; it would become more Continental. But only time will tell," he adds.

Similarly, Mike Gore, business risk manager at Greene King, stresses that the new laws will reduce the pressure to consume alcohol before closing time, helping to promote a more relaxed atmosphere.

"At most of its sites, Greene King has applied for just one hour of extra trading on a Friday and Saturday night, following the provisions set out in the 2003 Licensing Act. These applications are wholly in accordance with the Government's national objective to stagger closing times, moving away from a universal adherence to an 11pm cut-off," he says.

The trade is also opposed to ideas such as creating "disorder zones", which the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), for one, argues will simply end up stigmatising whole areas and make city centres, in effect, no-go areas for many law-abiding drinkers.

The idea of pubs being forced to contribute to the cost of extra policing also goes down like a lead balloon, as do other proposed curbs. In August, for example, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell warned that pubs which seek extensions to their opening hours could be closed down or have their hours drastically reduced if they attract complaints from the public or police.

"There is a benefit in not having every pub closing at the same time. It should not be the case that the behaviour of a small minority should impact on the whole sector," says Mark Hastings of the BBPA.

What the BBPA has been seeing is a general trend for pubs to put in for an extra hour or two on Friday and Saturday nights rather than a wholesale shift to operating 24 hours a day, which many argue is uneconomical anyway.

One positive effect of this could be to remove the incentive to surge into city centres at closing time and gather at the few outlets that have late licences.

"We have to separate the drinking hours issue from the binge-drinking issue, and from the violent behaviour issue," argues Hastings.
But where does this debate leave pub and bar workers, often a young, transient and casual workforce? The answer is: firmly caught in the middle.

Again, pub companies all point to the laudable policies, practices and training they have in place.

Burnyeat, for instance, reels off a range of initiatives, such as policies on hen and stag nights and drinking games, an "18-plus" scheme to help staff identify and deal with underage drinkers, and training on how to decline orders from drunk customers.

Gore is equally upbeat. "Greene King trains all managers to recognise and deal with the symptoms of antisocial behaviour and has a stringent responsible drinking policy which discourages antisocial behaviour," he explains.

The law is very clear that it is illegal for pubs to continue to serve someone who is unduly drunk. The difficulty, as publicans admit, is that this is rarely enforced in practice.

Despite what the law says, there is still a presumption that if your money is good you will get served, however much you have had to drink. "A large number of bars and clubs in particular do nothing to challenge that, so it ends up that individual bar workers are trying to stop it," says Hugh Robertson, head of health and safety at the TUC.

The main reason for bar workers to get injured is that they are either stopping a fight between customers or trying to sort it out, Robertson argues.

"In most bars, apart from them, there is no one to deal with disputes on the premises. And managers often expect them to do it without any training," he says.

"The competition in large metropolitan and inner-city areas is often very intense, and it is an area where margins are often squeezed. If one pub decides that it is going to eject people, it might simply find it is losing the market for hen and stag nights or its Saturday night trade. Because of this a lot of employers do act irresponsibly and put their sales and customers before their staff," he adds.

Ultimately, whether the new licensing laws lead to an upsurge in disorder or we all go Continental, pub companies will need to put training at the core of what they do with staff, particularly how to manage customers who are aggressive towards bar staff, argues Raj Gill, branch secretary (hotel and catering) at the GMB union.

There will also need to be a much more consistent, proactive attitude among landlords, who too often leave the onus for dealing with unduly drunk customers on their workers.

"The new law means bar staff who serve drunk or underage customers could be hit with an 80 on-the-spot fine. While accepting the Government's good intent, this could mean the loss of a week's wages for our members," stresses Gill.

How to defuse a violent situation

• Approach the person in an open manner, keeping your arms down. Avoid using body language that could be perceived as threatening, for example, hands on hips, crossed arms, pointing gestures, rolling your eyes. Maintain eye contact.
• Remain calm. Speak more softly and slowly than the aggressor, but be careful not to talk down to them. Don't get too close.
• Make sure that there is someone who can back you up.
• Be friendly and polite. Don't react to rudeness, aggression or sarcasm.
• Try to clear away any objects that could be used as a weapon.
• If a weapon is brandished, move side-on so you present less of a target, back off and get help. Try to ensure the aggressor does not feel trapped but has a way out of the situation.
• Explain politely but firmly why you are no longer serving them, that it is not personal but it is the policy of the pub, and the law.

Source: Security Industry Authority

Pub workers in the line of fire
Violence at pubs, unless it gets seriously out of hand, often goes unreported or is thought to be just part of the job for bar workers.

But, in the atmosphere of concern surrounding the introduction of 24-hour opening, incidents are making the headlines.

Last month a railway worker, Peter Bell, was jailed for nine months after attacking Alan Daly, landlord of the Nelson Inn in Westward Ho!, Devon, when he refused to serve him more drink.

Exeter Crown Court was told that Bell wrestled Daly to the ground and punched and kicked him several times.

In August last year, just after England were knocked out of Euro 2004 by Portugal, the Red Lion pub in Thetford, Norfolk, a popular watering hole with the local Portuguese community, was attacked and smashed up.

Customers and bar staff were barricaded in for two hours as bottles, stones and bricks were hurled. Publican Sergio Quieros is critical of the police. "The police did nothing. Nobody came to help us. How could this happen?" he asks.

A year earlier, in September 2003, local newspapers reported the trial of one Steven Ridgway, who drank up to 20 pints of lager and then broke a customer's leg in an attack at the Weary Traveller in Kidderminster, Worcestershire. He was jailed for six months.

Also in Kidderminster in 2003, one Anthony Murrihy was jailed for two years after attacking and seriously injuring a barman at the Horsefair pub. Assistant licensee Darren Bishop, then 35, suffered three broken bones in his cheek and a damaged eye socket and spent three days in hospital.

Door supervisors - trained and licensed support
Manchester city centre on a Saturday night can have 100,000 people in it, all having a good time, patrolled by perhaps fewer than 40 police officers, calculates Robert Buxton, media manager at the Security Industry Authority, which licenses the profession we used to know and love as bouncers.

Yet there will also be some 1,000 or so door supervisors working in the same area, who can act as an increasingly professional backup to the police, he argues.

Since April, all such door supervisors - they are definitely not "bouncers" these days - working on licensed premises have had to be licensed under new Home Office rules.

All must now go through an intensive four-day course covering areas such the law, search and arrest procedures, drugs awareness, and emergency and evacuation procedures, says Buxton.

"It is not just about having a burly guy standing on the door turning people away," he explains. "They also learn communication and conflict management skills: things such as how to eject people in a way that will not cause conflict; how to identify incidents before they get out of hand; and how to prevent injury, either to themselves or other customers. They also learn how far they can go in the law."

This last point is particularly important, because if a door supervisor assaults someone who then successfully sues for damages, then the licensee could be liable.

"It is about learning how to stay calm and how to identify different kinds of behaviour. But it is also knowing when to eject someone, how to do it properly, and how to liaise with and best assist the police and, indeed, when to call the police," he adds.