Police to increase patrols threefold for ‘Mad Friday’

Police will have three times as many officers than usual patrolling Mansfield town centre this weekend to help quell the potential for Christmas trouble.

The Friday before Christmas is when many people finish work for the festive break and head for the town's pubs and clubs.

In response, Mansfield will increase the number of officers on duty threefold on both Friday and Saturday to prepare for the celebrations.

Mansfield's leading police officer, Inspector Neil Priestley, said: "We will have early intervention when we talk to people earlier on in the evening to let them know we will be around.

"We'll also be linking in with the pubs and the nightclubs.

"We want people to enjoy Christmas so we are there to help and make sure they have a good evening.

"It's going to be a really busy weekend.

"We're going to have enough staff on to deal with any incidents and with any offenders who are hell bent on causing other people problems.

"They will be dealt with accordingly."

Often nicknamed 'Black Friday', 'Mad Friday' or even 'Black-Eye Friday', it is often one of the busiest nights of the year with revellers drinking too much.

On a regular Friday and Saturday night in Mansfield, six officers and a sergeant would be on duty.

For this weekend, 17 officers and two sergeants are due to work across both nights.

They will be on duty 
from 8pm to 5am on both evenings.

Insp Priestley added: "There will be high visibility presence in the town to deal with things early.

"We are not saying we don't want people to drink, we want them to come in and enjoy themselves."

Last year police worked in conjunction with pubs in the run up to Christmas to breath test drinkers at the door.

Although it was voluntary for drinkers, in the three weekends before Christmas it was found that more than a quarter of those willing to take the test were found to be too drunk to enter.

The experiment had been welcomed by managers of the licensed premises, who said it provided justification for turning drinkers away.

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