Troublemakers barred with new yellow card

One sharp eyed City of London Police officer and a team's hard work have handed every officer in the Force a new tool for dealing with violent crime.

The 'yellow card' allows officers to bar someone from the Square Mile for up to 48 hours. A recent trial proved so successful in diffusing potentially violent situations that the card is being rolled out across the City of London Police.

Although the power came in with the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, it wasn't introduced in the City until PC Nicola Picknett, from Snow Hill's Safer City Wards operations team, came across it.

"It was mentioned in an email between members of an anti-social behaviour forum that I'm part of," she explained. "I raised it with my inspector at the time, and he supported me progressing it - especially with the increase in our night-time economy."

PC John Jeffery from Snow Hill, who was part of the trial group, was one of the first officers to use it.

"I got called to a pub where a drunk man was being aggressive," John said. "Normally you'd give someone a warning but then you'd get called to some other pub where they're causing a nuisance later on. With the yellow card, though, I was able to give him a 12-hour ban."

John called through to Control who captured an image of the man on CCTV to aid with identification in case he broke the banning order. He cooperated fully and took a bus out of the City.

John then explained the powers to the licensee.

"He was very happy with the way we dealt with it and thought this power would be good for the future," John said.

It doesn't even involve extra paperwork. If an officer decides to use the yellow card, they don't need to fill in a 386 as well, unless they search the person as well.