The UK Parliament Home Affairs Committee report on drugs (August 2023) recommended that the UK Government adopt a broader range of health-based harm reduction methods alongside efforts to shrink the illicit drugs market. Central to these health-based harm reduction approaches are an expansion of diversionary schemes, often referred to as out of court disposals or resolutions. These are intended to channel people who use drugs away from the criminal justice system and into treatment, education and support. More recently the use of diversionary approaches in England and Wales have become increasingly police-led. Most police forces now use diversionary approaches to drug possession offences and/or drug-related crime, but only some areas have formalised policy and practice. Evidence on the impact of these programmes in the UK remains limited.
This paper adds to this evidence-base, discussing the emerging results from a large-scale, multi-site, realist evaluation of police drug diversion (PDD) programmes, funded by the UK Cabinet Office. PDD policy implementation is explored in data collected from interviews with 60 police officers involved in the implementation or use of established PDD programmes in three forces in England. We focus on the way in which PDD policy is implemented in policing contexts, with differing attitudes and varied circumstances affecting the mechanisms that change attitudes and behaviour, leading to diverse outcomes. We reflect on the policy and practice implications arising from these findings, considering how these compare to the intended policy aims.