Reporter Robert Collins went on the beat on Friday night to find out why.

Television screens show pictures of injuries while people hand out lollipops - it's the new face of late-night policing.

In fact this was only part of a major operation staged in Leamington town centre at the weekend. Police, firefighters and hospital and ambulance staff turned out onto the streets as part of Your Town, Your Choice, a weekend of policing intended to make drinkers, licensees and residents think about social responsibility.

It might sound old-fashioned but Warwick District Commander Chief Insp Martin McNevin explains the operation is an attempt to deal with noise, litter, anti-social behaviour and vomiting - the main problems that come from weekend drinking.

He believes it is time to establish a "moral threshold" so people know where they stand. Beat Sergeant Paul Calver explains why police chose this particular weekend. He says: "It's pay day weekend which always means there are more people in the town. It is also the first weekend for the freshers at university, so we have the biggest audience to reach and educate.

"We are also asking the people of Leamington what they are and what they are not willing to accept and how they think they can help the police to make the town a better place."

The force has been planning the operation for a month, and the streets are swarming with police. There are beat officers, drugs officers, paramedics and firefighters. There are extra staff manning the CCTV screens, officers checking on domestic violence meetings, visiting teenage drinking hotspots and checking up on off-licenses, and there are nurses at a treatment centre in Warwick Street.

There are even lollipops, but this is not a Kojak-style gimmick.

Sgt Calver explains: "One theory is that if you put a lollipop in someone's mouth they are not going to be shouting. Another is that when you drink a lot of alcohol your blood sugar levels come down and you are more likely to become violent."

Chief Insp McNevin adds: "It's a good way for us to engage the public. It lightens the mood."

Many officers have given up their own time for the operation. But this show of force is not there to pick up every criminal in town. Sgt Calver hopes to show people what the police can do, but also to ask his officers any questions they want.

He said: "The aim is not to lock up hundreds and hundreds of people. If we do end up locking up hundreds of people we will have failed."

We are in Jephson Gardens, where the police are showing pictures of some of the injuries from nights out.

Couples Night

I am out with Insp Robin Clifton and Sgt Ben Smith. Insp Clifton explains that Saturday is the busier night for police as Friday night is "couples night".

We head to Jephson Gardens, where the police are showing pictures of some of the injuries from nights out. But it is only just after 10pm and there aren't many people about.

Unsurprisingly, most problems police deal with arise from drinking, and Sgt Smith says the most common perpetrators - and victims - are young men aged from 17 or 18 to their late 20s. These were the problems new licensing laws were supposed to solve, but Sgt Smith says little has changed.

"It hasn't had the dramatic effect we all hoped for," he explains. "It has pushed back the kicking out time.

"Unfortunately in Leamington the three clubs all tend to kick out at 3am or 3.30am. People have just had an extra hour and a half to drink. It hasn't really affected the way we police."

The 27-year-old studied economics and history at university but came back to Warwickshire and joined the police. With his education, he ought to be able to cast some light on the modern policeman's lot - targets, paperwork and politicians.

Sgt Smith said: "The reality is that police officers want to police. They want to do the job they joined to do.

"Targets are understandable because the only way the public can see what we are doing and measure our performance is for the Home Office to set them. But some are not necessarily conducive to achieving what the public wants us to achieve and sometimes they don't help us do the job we want to do.

"There are never enough resources, there are never enough police officers. We are always thinly stretched. It is a relatively thin blue line. It is very difficult to explain sometimes when people are in need that we will come as quickly as we can.

"We will always moan about paperwork. There is a vast amount of paperwork and a lot of it is duplicated but it is what I expected. I certainly haven't had another job that gives me as much satisfaction."


The Special

Standing outside Jephson Gardens is 31-year-old special constable Richard McMaster. By day he is researcher at Birmingham University, where he studies the way 'the human element' comes into design and engineering. At weekends he joins full-time officers around Whitnash and Old Town.

He said: "I live in Leamington and where I live isn't the nicest part of town. I was getting a bit down about the way things were going, then I looked on the police website and I thought I would do something about it."

He says Friday night is busiest in his areas - "I try to work a Friday because I like to be busy" - and believes the weather plays a part, what many older colleagues refer to as 'Pc Rain'.

Specials can be called to everything a full-time officer might tackle, from swans in the Parade to domestic violence or dealing with disorder in a club.

The 31-year-old also believes 'saturating' the town with police, even for one night, is a valuable exercise.

He added: "It has been noticed, so it's definitely worth doing."

Jumping all over each other

It is 10.55pm and there has been a disturbance in a north Leamington pub. Two young men are led out. Around the doorway different people are giving their version of events.

"They were jumping all over each other and I just said I'm not having that. I thought he was going to try to hit me."

"OK, let him speak and then you can take your turn."

"I gave him the benefit of the doubt twice."

"Nobody will get nicked."

"If we have any more substandard behaviour out of you boys tonight you will both get locked up."

Eventually a doorman explains: "He had a glass and he was stood there with the glass and started chucking it round in the air. I've gone over and spoke to him once. He put it down.

"The manager called me in but he started jumping on the table. When I went to chuck him out he swung his arm. He swung his arm as though he was going to throw a punch. I walked him through door."

We walk down a deserted Bedford Street. A doorman shivers and rocks on his tiptoes in a doorway.

"On Fridays we drive round some nights and think 'what are we doing here?' but within 30 minutes it will be heaving," says Insp Clifton.

We meet Sgt Andy Scruton and a team of officers with drug testing swabs and walk through one pub. People shout out sarcastically when they see the uniforms.

Pc Lance Pearce shows the colour chart for the different drugs. Blue means cocaine. "It's a new bit of kit," he says. "We're looking to test it regularly around the area."

The police can go into any pub toilets and swab around the basins and toilets with wipes that show instantly when drugs have been used. All the police do then is tell the licensee what they have found and suggest ways of reducing the problem.

Earlier tests that evening have shown up amphetamine, cannabis resin and cocaine traces and the first pub we go into has traces of cocaine around the wash basins.

By now there is a small crowd of policemen standing in the street. A member of the public comes up. "Excuse me, what are you doing?" she says.

An officer replies: "We're on a multi-agency operation."

Policemen's English may have improved since the days of 'proceeding in a northerly direction' but sometimes they still need a bit of help.

Graham Reeves and James Morton are both out in town.

Mr Reeves, 23, of Cubbington, said: "I agree with it. There should be more police. Half the time there are not enough," he looks up and down the street, "but maybe there are a few too many tonight."

Another woman who asks not to be named is a mite alarmed to come out for a cigarette and encounter a host of policemen.

She said: "I'm for it. I have children. If anything helps keep the streets safe I'm for it. But it is a bit frightening for me to come out and see all this."

Next we meet two West Midlands police drug dogs and their handlers, who have been dropping into pubs during the evening.

The dogs are trained to detect drugs of all kinds, bank currency, cordite from firearms and gun oil. Being springer spaniels, they do not growl or bark or wrestle people to the floor, but signal to their handlers when they smell something.

Buddy's handler Pc Scott Wayne explains the signal could be as simple as the dog sitting down or looking back at its handler. It's all quite low-key.

Pc Wayne emphasises most people have nothing to worry about. "The first thing we say is we're not there to spoil the evening."

We arrive at a bar. The system is simple: drug dogs and handlers go in, other officers stand around entrances and wait to see who comes out. Within a few minutes two men are brought out and led away.

Everyone is standing around when a young man across the road sees the dogs and moves to run. Except there are police everywhere. And they've spotted him.

Springer spaniel Beau, four, trots over and 'tags' the young man's pocket. He looks defeated, and a bit embarassed. His handler, Pc Pete Holmes, explains: "Most of the time we're not watching the dogs, we're watching the people."

Meanwhile, the dogs are proving a hit with the ladies. In fact, there are probably only three people in the street who don't like springer spaniels much.

After midnight

It's after midnight and Insp Clifton sums up how he feels about the evening's work.

He says: "The licensing checks have gone really well. You can see from walking round how alcohol affects people's behaviour. They get a lot louder and a lot more angry.

"The drug checks have been quite good. It clearly shows there are lots of drugs being used in pubs.

"I'm pleased with the way it's gone. It shows where we need to concentrate our efforts."

Our time with the police was over, but with the clubs ever closer to 'kicking out time' Insp Clifton and his colleagues were far from finished for the night.