Dylan Connell joined some of the officers patrolling the city.
“It’s massive at the moment,” says PC Mike Liversidge when I ask him just how bad county lines drug dealing is in York. “It’s just an easy spot, York. It’s a nice place, it’s close [to other cities], there are no organised crime gangs.”
I’m joining PC Liversidge and PC Adam Harris for safeguarding visits, checking on people who are or have been caught up in county lines drug dealing, in the east of York.
PC Liversidge says the visits help police know these people are safe.
The visits also allow officers to find out how drugs are entering the city so they can act to close these lines and arrest the criminals operating them.
Police have identified county lines “hot spots” in the city, PC Liversidge says, but it is happening in “all corners of York, all the outer suburbs”.
He knocks on the door of a property but there’s no answer.
“It’s a bit hit and miss,” he says of the visits. But for those who do want to speak to him “it’s reassuring”. “They have an outlet to tell us about [county lines drug dealing in their community]," he says.
PC Liversidge knocks on another door, and we are invited inside the property.
The person living there says they were previously involved with drugs but are now clean.
They describe how being involved with drugs turned their life upside down and add that dealers continue to try and contact them for a sale.
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