Policing County Lines: Responses To Evolving Provincial Drug Markets

By Jack Spicer

The County Lines phenomenon has become one of the most significant drug market developments in the UK over recent years. This book analyses how it is being responded to by the police in affected provincial areas. Drawing on unique ethnographic fieldwork, it takes readers into police stations and out onto the streets with officers, providing timely insight into the policing of this high profile and challenging drug market context. The book considers the use of new police tactics that have been proposed and familiar methods that officers regularly embarked on. Through a sophisticated theoretical framework it argues that the policing of County Lines can often be considered ‘symbolic’, with concerns regularly placed on sending out strong messages that appear superficial when closely examined. Alongside this, however, there appears to be a progressive shift towards a more pragmatic drugs policing approach that embraces harm reduction principles.This cutting-edge research speaks to academics in Criminology and Policing, and to practitioners and policy makers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Release date: Oct 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9783030541934

Jack Spicer

Jack Spicer (1925—1965) was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer won the American Book Award for poetry.

Book preview

© The Author(s) 2021

J. SpicerPolicing County LinesPalgrave Studies in Risk, Crime and Societyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54193-4_1

1. Introduction

Jack Spicer¹  

(1)

Frenchay Campus, 3D014, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

Jack Spicer

Email: [e-mail]

The Realities of Drug Markets

The hidden world of illicit drug markets, including how they change over time and the role of the police in responding to them, has been a principal concern of criminologists for decades. Across time and place, the buying and selling of illicit substances, the social terrain these exchanges are situated within and the relationship between those transgressing and enforcing drug laws have regularly been the focus of inquiry. Part of the reason for the popularity of these criminological endeavours is how they often allow for scrutiny into state responses to social problems and marginalised groups. Half a century ago, for example, Jock Young (1971) told a theoretically sophisticated ethnographic story of how cannabis users living in the Notting Hill area of London carved out a subcultural existence just below the surface of mainstream society. By studying their dynamic relationship with the police, wider society and the resulting forces of ‘fantasy’ and ‘deviancy amplification’, he classically outlined the types of social interactions and processes that can spiral out of the application of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. More recently, Travis Linnemann (2016) has interrogated the so-called meth epidemic in parts of rural America, critically examining the cultural roles of various criminal justice and societal institutions in constructing the ‘meth imaginary’ that mediates how the problem is commonly perceived to exist.

Many other fascinating studies have been undertaken in-between, and many more will be pursued in the future. The so-called drug war and those on both sides of the legal fence in this long-running saga therefore continue to be the subject of scrutiny, controversy and debate (Gossop 2016; Inciardi 2008). Imbued with mythology, moralising and misunderstanding, drug markets are social arenas that occupy a distinct cultural and political space, where often firm, but upon closer inspection, occasionally slightly blurred lines are drawn regarding what is considered right and wrong (Coomber 2006; Reinarman and Levine 1989). One rarely needs to look much further than the stereotypes, dramatisations and narratives that regularly underscore how the subject is covered in the news media for this to be put on full show (Alexandrescu 2018; Ayres and Jewkes 2012; Coomber et al. 2000). The many fictional representations of drug markets and the ‘cops and crooks’ involved with them also demonstrate the moral ambiguity and general ‘grey areas’ (Jacques 2019) that abound in this clandestine world (Linnemann 2016; Wakeman 2014).

Yet, while not overlooking the significance of the cultural meanings subscribed to them, the pleasure that the drugs sold within them can bring or how they represent very different things to very different people, it is important to recognise that drug markets are frequently the sites of very real and often very significant harms (Coomber 2015; Hall et al. 2008; Kleiman 2005; May and Hough 2004). Their human costs can be considerable. Individuals can be exposed to the types of harsh experiences rarely experienced anywhere other than at ‘virtually anarchic’ illegal market places (Jacques and Allen 2015). Those living and working in wider communities affected by drug markets can also be consumed with undesirable or sometimes exceedingly deleterious impacts associated with their presence. While often clandestine, the harms of this subterranean world can be numerous, substantial and cumulative. As those working in the realist tradition have stressed, to downplay, obscure or, at worse, ignore these harms risks criminology failing to address adequately some of the true actualities of crime, the attempts to control it and those whose lives are often most affected (e.g. Matthews 2014). While not dismissing the continued value and importance of the rich tapestry of theoretical lenses that have been trained on this area, for an academic discipline with crime as its central focus or ‘meeting point’, this risks criminologists overlooking an important part of their brief. How they may be culturally represented and socially constructed is undoubtedly regularly distorted or exaggerated. But drug markets can very often be a significant problem. For better or for worse, plenty of professional’s lives are also spent trying to solve them. These fears, harms and subsequent responses are currently playing out every day on the streets, behind closed doors and in police stations up and down the UK.

Paul Andell (2019) has recently argued, via the adoption of a critical realist framework, that thinking about and taking drug markets ‘seriously’ is of central importance. As has been observed by others, however, it is often difficult to separate drug markets and their machinations from the attempts at enforcing relevant laws against them by agents of formal social control (e.g. Ellis et al. 2002; Hall and Antonopoulos 2017; Matrix Knowledge Group 2007). Paying close and critical attention to the realities of how drug markets are responded to by the police and thinking about this ‘seriously’ can therefore be considered a complementary criminological endeavour of corresponding worth. Other researchers who have trodden similar paths to the empirical data reported in this book have argued much the same (Bacon 2016; Collison 1995). While remaining attentive to the importance and the inescapable influence of the social constructions and cultural meanings that swirl around and become difficult to reconcile from drug markets, it is amid the backdrop of attempting to document some of the realities of how particular local drug markets are policed that this book situates itself. As it attempts to detail ethnographically, these realities can be complex, exciting, frustrating and mundane. Sometimes they can be all of these things in the space of just a few hours. But they should be considered important. Ultimately, reporting and critically analysing such details on the policing of drug markets opens a window, albeit partially, into what is ‘actually going on’ in this fundamental component of the criminological world (Fielding 2006).

Policing County Lines

More specifically, this book is concerned with detailing the local policing responses to a particular, and arguably particularly significant, contemporary drug market development. Across the UK, an apparent drug market ‘evolution’ has occurred over recent years involving the outreach practices of drug-dealing networks from major supply hubs to provincial satellite areas (Coomber and Moyle 2018). Widely referred to as the phenomenon of ‘County Lines’, urban groups involved in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin have been reported to be increasingly expanding their illicit operations from their native major urban conurbations and ‘setting up shop’ in more provincial areas including rural, coastal and market towns (NCA 2016; Robinson et al. 2019; Whittaker et al. 2020). To successfully achieve this, dedicated phone numbers are used by these supply networks to connect the various parties involved and facilitate drug supply. Rather than sourcing heroin and crack through local contacts, it appears that, over recent years, those living in provincial areas across the UK are finding that the dealers they are purchasing from are increasingly from elsewhere.

The emergence, increasing recognition and apparent burgeoning of this outreach supply practice has generated significant attention and concern. Corresponding with the difficulties of separating illicit markets and the attempts at enforcing laws against them, it has often been difficult to divorce this high-profile drug market development from the various high-profile responses to it. This attention has been particularly intense among the police and other law enforcement agencies, with senior criminal justice officials and social control agencies with national influence being the original key drivers of the issue. In particular, as discussed in further detail later on in this book, the relatively new institution of the National Crime Agency has been particularly influential in bringing the issue to the fore and setting the general surrounding agenda (see NCA 2015). Correspondingly, it has also been highly influential in subsequently dictating the terms on which the issue has been discussed and, to a certain extent, how it is now commonly understood (see NCA 2016, 2017).

In an iterative process, this intense law enforcement agenda on County Lines has permeated out and become absorbed into wider political and policy spheres. In the formulation of their influential ‘drug-scare’ concept, Reinarman and Levine (1989) noted that during times of intensified attention on specific drug-related ‘problems’, various professional interest groups often fight for authority on speaking about the topic. A more general competition for ownership regularly also ensues. This appears to resonate closely with how the phenomenon of County Lines has played out over the past few years. Various politicians at various times have been outspoken on the topic, perhaps recognising the political currency available for doing so. It has also received significant attention from various political groups such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Runaway and Missing Children and Adults (see APPG 2017). Likewise, those that seek to straddle the divide between policy and practice have been consistently outspoken and sought to position themselves as prominent commentators on the topic. Organisations such as The St Giles Trust and The Children’s Society continue to regularly promote their work in the area and have produced various literature and other materials on the subject that have been picked up by those outside of their immediate practitioner circles (see e.g. St Giles Trust 2018).

Reflecting this heightened attention, the media have somewhat inevitably seized on the topic and regularly placed it under the public eye. As is often the case, this media spotlight has often shone quite intensely, if not always in a completely accurate direction. At times over the past few years, barely a day has gone by without another new story about County Lines or the responses to it hitting the headlines of national and local news outlets across the UK. Complementing this, a number of documentaries of varying quality, but all generally purporting to have ‘gotten to the heart’ of the issue, have been made. In various manifestations, it has also made its way onto TV screens through other formats, often appearing on shows that might not appear a natural fit on face value, such as the soap opera, Hollyoaks. For better or for worse, County Lines can therefore comfortably be considered as having become a social ‘phenomenon’ over the past few years, meeting the criteria of what Loic Wacquant (2008) has referred to as being a ‘newsy’ topic. This has various important implications. One that serves as the central focus for this book is what this means for those on the front line of the criminal justice system who are tasked with responding to and solving this ‘new problem’.

Whether it emanates from senior criminal justice officials, politicians, the media or various professional interest groups, of particular concern related to the burgeoning County Lines supply model and the reasons for its ‘newsy’ status has been three key forms of harm associated with this type of drug supply. Sitting outside the central process of the transactions between buyers and sellers themselves, these might be more generally considered as drug market ‘externalities’ (Caulkins 2002). First is an apparent increase, both in seriousness and frequency, of what Paul Goldstein (1985) would term ‘systemic’ drug market violence reported in areas affected by the presence of this form of supply. Second, and something which the County Lines phenomenon has become almost synonymous with in some quarters, has been the involvement of young people in aspects of this supply practice and the harms they may experience as a consequence (Windle and Briggs 2015). Third has been the exploitation of vulnerable local populations, with the home takeover practice known as ‘cuckooing’ being the most prevalent (Spicer et al. 2019). All of these will be critically discussed in more detail in the next chapter.

More generally, it has been suggested that this drug supply practice and its now burgeoning prevalence represents a distinct development or ‘evolution’ in the functioning of retail heroin and crack markets outside of major cities (Coomber and Moyle 2018). It should be made clear in this introductory chapter that it is this wider, specifically drug market-based conception of County Lines as representing a significant shift in the functioning of the supply of heroin and crack in provincial areas that provides the specific context of this book. It is the police responses to these evolving drug markets and the specific impact on local areas that comprise the core subject matter, as opposed to the involvement of young people. In fact, it is the responses to the other two ‘externalities’ of violence and exploitation in the form of cuckooing that comprise the main focus due to how central they are to the local market context and how they constituted the main concerns of the local police responses. Others have, and will likely continue, to focus on the involvement of young people in detail (see e.g. Windle et al. 2020). Elsewhere I have critically analysed some of the discourses surrounding it (Spicer 2020). But, for this book at least, it is not worth losing sight that, broadly conceived, County Lines represents a wider drug market evolution worthy of specific and focused attention in and of itself.

Based on this drug market-centric conception, the burgeoning presence and high-profile nature of County Lines suggest this supply practice may present new and increased challenges for the police in affected areas. This corresponds to observations of the increased mobility of organised crime groups internationally, with illicit networks being ‘pushed’ and ‘pulled’ to operate in different locations (see Morselli et al. 2011). Rigorous academic research on the topic of County Lines remains limited. This is somewhat inevitable considering it is a relatively recent development. But this current paucity of attention is especially apparent for understanding both the policing of the issue and the geographical areas that have been affected by the ‘import’ of this supply methodology (Reuter and MacCoun 1992). Reflecting the emphasis placed on media and political and wider public discourses, what has been written academically has focused dominantly on the involvement of young people and how this can be understood in relation to wider conceptions of ‘gang’ activity (e.g. Robinson et al. 2019; Whittaker et al. 2020). Focusing specifically on the local geographical context of County Lines and the understandings surrounding it, this book instead sets its sights more firmly on exploring the implications of this high-profile drug market evolution for local police and others responding to it in provincial towns. Doing so sheds light on a vital aspect of the County Lines phenomenon that has hitherto remained in the shadows.

Policing Drug Markets: A Research Agenda

While the responses to the local drug market context of County Lines sit firmly as the backdrop to this book, situated alongside is a wider, complementary research inquiry. As Marks et al. (2016) have noted, while a substantial body of empirical research on drugs policing exists, surprisingly little has been derived from direct observations and interactions with police officers during the course of their duties. Two notable British exceptions where researchers have spent extended periods of time with police officers as they respond to drug markets are the ethnographies of Matthew Bacon (2016) and Mike Collison (1995). While not adhering to quite the same methodological slant, Dorn et al.’s (1992) landmark text, Traffickers, provides some relevant insight. Further afield, Peter Manning (2004) has explored this aspect of police work in parts of the USA. However, for some time now, academic analysis of drug market policing has become grounded predominantly in data gleaned from actors who are active in the drug market themselves. Some, for example, have probed the consequences of police operations on the functioning of the drug markets from the perspective of those buying and selling within them (e.g. Maher and Dixon 1999). Others have sought to shed light on the experiences of drug market actor’s interactions with the police (e.g. Collins et al. 2019; Mason 2020). Highlighting this unequal empirical preference for those who are subjected to drugs policing rather than actually undertaking it is not to criticise this body of research. It provides invaluable insight and gives voice to some of the most marginalised populations. But to make greater sense of the complex relationship between the law on the books and that on the streets (Marks et al. 2016, p. 323), empirical research also needs to be conducted alongside and within the police, capturing the perspectives and experiences of those officers undertaking this work themselves. In addition to documenting the reality of this aspect of policing, there is a particular need to penetrate the ‘presentational front’ (Goffman 1959) of both officers and the institution they belong to. Doing so can help to complement the work of other drug market researchers and the lenses they adopt, promoting wider understanding and insight into this often controversial area.

Despite the fact that most research under the banner of drug control addresses prevention and treatment (Caulkins 2017), as a percentage of expenditure, law enforcement continues to vastly subsume the overall amount of resources used across the world on drug policy (Ritter and Stevens 2017). Because of this relative lack of inquiry on drugs policing compared to treatment, it could be considered as having been given a disproportionately low level of scholarly attention. Writing over a decade ago, Lee and South (2008, p. 516) suggested that those undertaking research on the policing of drugs in the future should seek specifically to address how tensions and contradictions within the field of drug policy are (re)produced and negotiated by those working in this area. This speaks to Lipsky’s (1980) classic notion of scrutinising the processes and outcomes of ‘street-level bureaucracy’, which concerns with how front line workers implement formal policy on the ground, the types of decision-making processes they engage in, the discretion that they may (or may not) exercise in the course of their duties and the wider social and cultural conditions in which this plays out. It is within the contemporary drug market context of County Lines and its effect on local areas that this book, with its analysis of drug market policing and of the ‘street-level officials’ who perform it, focuses on. By specifically analysing the strategies and tactics used by police officers in this particular aspect of their work through ethnographic data, it considers how, and perhaps most importantly why, these operate in practice in the ways that they do. Doing so builds upon the wider body of comparable work that has focused on the enforcement of drug laws (e.g. Bear 2016; Marks and Howell 2016). Most importantly, when considering the overarching aim of this book, it ultimately also allows for significant insight into how County Lines is actually being responded to by the police.

Methodologically, Bacon’s (2016) and Collison’s (1995) ethnographies of drug detective work serve as particular inspiration for this book. For those taking the first tentative and unstable steps in their research career, it is invaluable to know what others have found possible. Reading the accounts of their fieldwork as I was about to embark on my own stressed the value of spending prolonged periods of time observing and speaking to police officers about their occupation. It also demonstrated what I, as a relatively inexperienced PhD student at the time, may be able to realistically achieve. In the General Editors’ Introduction to Bacon’s (2016) monograph, Tim Newburn and Jill Peay stated that they hoped it would stimulate similar endeavours. This book can be considered an attempt to answer that call. How successful it is in doing so lies in how the content of the subsequent chapters is received.

Bacon’s (2016) work, among others (e.g. Stevens 2013), also represents an important theoretical springboard for this book. As is discussed in great detail throughout many of the chapters, the application of harm reduction principles to the policing of drug markets poses as a particularly key and fruitful academic avenue to explore. Bacon (2016) concluded his monograph by stating that further empirical exploration and theoretical explication on this subject were necessary. In many ways, this book attempts to pick up from where he left off. Throughout, the perspective of ‘symbolic policing’ proposed by Coomber et al. (2019) also serves as a valuable theoretical lens, not least because the nature of the fieldwork I undertook provided the opportunity to observe the activities and justifications of drugs policing from within the rare vantage points of police stations and those who inhabit them. This was a position that their original analysis and formulation of the perspective, though insightful and theoretically sophisticated, did not derive from. Relating back to the overarching focus on the policing of County Lines, foregrounding these two theoretical commitments alongside a wider ethnographic empirical endeavour serves to address the hitherto generally unanswered call from Windle and Briggs (2015) for greater understanding to be developed into how agencies are responding to this issue. In short, therefore, in addition to the empirical aim of documenting the realities of how the emergence of the County Lines phenomenon is being responded to by police officers working locally in affected provincial areas, a concerted emphasis is placed throughout this book on attempting to do so in a theoretically informed manner.

Book Structure

As is de rigueur, to conclude this opening chapter, an outline for what is to come in the following pages will be provided. It is hoped that readers may find individual chapters of the book of interest in their own right. The two following chapters provide both original synthesis and critical review of a significant body of literature, posing various questions and answering several of them along the way. The subsequent empirical chapters, each telling an analytical ethnographic story of a particular aspect of the policing of County Lines, attempt to weave relevant theory throughout and locate findings in relation to wider bodies of existing work. That noted, there is a distinct and unavoidable narrative that, both theoretically and chronologically, runs throughout. To fully appreciate the arguments put forward in this book, the scaffolding process that chapters attempt to achieve and the conclusions that are ultimately made, a thorough read from start to finish is encouraged.

Chapter 2 focuses specifically on the phenomenon of County Lines and how it has developed over recent years. Reviewing the limited available literature on the subject, it begins by providing an outline of what this drug supply methodology is in order to clarify the etymology of the term and its use throughout the rest of the book. It moves on to trace the development of this drug market practice by scrutinising closely official reports and then critically contextualising and discussing them with reference to other relevant literature. Unpacking the central concept of drug market ‘saturation’ and other relevant aspects, the chapter moves on to address some of the key arguments as to why this supply ‘evolution’ has occurred. Finally, it focuses on some of the harms associated with this outreach supply methodology and the reasons why it has generated such intense levels of concern and attention. Ultimately, the chapter seeks to provide a necessary overview of the topic for the remainder of the book while also representing a useful exercise in critically synthesising all of the relevant literature that was available on the subject at the time of writing.

Focusing specifically on the policing of drugs and how drug markets have been responded to by agents of formal social control, Chap. 3 provides a second literature-based chapter that constructs a theoretical framework to be drawn upon when considering the book’s empirical findings. It begins by addressing how policing has been structured in response to drug markets, and the traditional ways that the police have sought to tackle these illicit environments and the actors operating within them. It then moves on to take an explicitly critical view of the policing of this area. Drawing on the wealth of available literature, it outlines arguments that law enforcement activity has been ineffective in relation to the stated aims of prohibition, while simultaneously causing or exacerbating numerous harms. Importantly, it is here where the notion of drugs policing being considered as ‘symbolic’, with its central concerns of sending out ‘strong’ messages to others, is outlined and unpacked in theoretical detail. The final section of the chapter discusses alternative ways of policing drug markets. Drawing on the modest amount of valuable literature available, it addresses specifically the notion of applying harm reduction principles to this aspect of police work. It is concluded that this poses as a valuable perspective that allows researchers a productive avenue to explore this area, although it is one that requires further empirical and theoretical development.

Chapter 4 provides a thorough methodological account of the empirical research undertaken for this research. It provides a detailed description of the two main phases of data collection and analysis undertaken for this study, how they relate to one another and the research questions that were addressed. It justifies the methodological position undertaken and the use of the ethnographic method to address these research questions. Drawing on the history of police research and situating the book in the context of contemporary scholarship, a short reflexive discussion is provided on where the research for the book can be situated. Similarly, it discusses how I as an ‘outsider’ researcher was situated in relation to the officers I spent time with and the policing organisation more generally throughout the fieldwork. Throughout, the implications of researching a ‘newsy’ subject (see Wacquant 2008) are reflected upon. By providing this methodological detail, the chapter allows for the findings presented in the following chapters to be assessed and understood appropriately.

Chapter 5 draws on original empirical data. It reports on the analysis of in-depth interviews with police officers tasked with responding to County Lines in an affected force area. These were undertaken during the relative infancy of the phenomenon as an initial exploratory phase of the research project. Centred on a core analytic category of ‘profit maximisation’, it provides detail on this specific outreach supply practice, the associated harms and the specific context of the phenomenon for those responding to in provincial affected towns. Perhaps most significantly, the chapter theoretically considers some of the surrounding meanings and understandings provided by officers regarding their towns being increasingly infiltrated by ‘out-of-town’ dealers. It concludes by outlining some of the initial ways that officers were considering responding to County Lines. In addition to providing important initial insights into these areas, the analysis presented in this chapter provides valuable conceptual foundations for the subsequent empirical inquiry reported on in subsequent chapters.

Drawing on the main phase of ethnographic fieldwork undertaken as part of this research project, Chap. 6 is the first of two that provides findings and analysis of some of the specific initial police responses to County Lines at a local level. It focuses particularly on two tactics that were ‘bespoke’ to this drug market development and the threat posed by the burgeoning presence of ‘out-of-town’ dealers: the ‘Drug Dealing Telecommunications Restriction Order’ and the pursuit of modern slavery convictions. It documents in detail the responses of officers on the ground to the promotion of these tactics and the reasons for their ultimate reluctance to engage with them. Throughout, the findings are contextualised in relation to the ‘symbolic’ policing perspective proposed by Coomber et al. (2019).

Chapter 7