THE number of violent crimes committed in Worcestershire is dropping, but West Mercia Police are backing a national call to tackle the problem even further.

Violent crime has fallen by 11 per cent in the force's area over the last two years, but despite this, 37 per cent of the crimes committed involved alcohol, and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) are calling for officers to encourages drinkers to take responsibility for their behaviour.

Assistant Chief Constable Gareth Morgan is keen to address the issue.

He said: "There were over 1,300 fewer recorded violent crimes in the West Mercia area last year compared to two years before. We’ve done a lot of work to address this issue and it is clear we are having success."

But in previous years a lot of pressure has been put on police resources to tackle excessive drinking, and many officers have had to pulled from other duties to deal with the drunk and disorderly in town centre over the weekend.

"However, we are still spending too much of our time dealing with alcohol related violent crime, both in people’s homes and in public. This is time we could better spend preventing crime, catching criminals and protecting people from harm," ACC Morgan said.

"It is only a minority who don’t know how to behave after a few drinks, the majority of people in the West Mercia area can have a good time without wanting to cause harm to others. The people who are regularly causing trouble know who they are and there is help available if they feel they can’t change their drinking habits on their own."

Chef Constable Adrian Lee, the national policing lead on alcohol harm, is calling for voluntary measures to stop the production of large cans of super strength alcohol being sold and making shops more responsible in their promotion, as well as running a weekend of action on alcohol, from today (Friday), to encourage people to think about their alcohol consumption and the impact on others.