LANCASHIRE Police made the third highest number of arrests for drunk and disorderly behaviour across the UK in 2020, a freedom of information request has revealed.

FROM MARS, a healthcare company particularly focussed on male wellbeing, asked for the data from each individual force, which showed Lancashire Police arrested 481 people per 100,000 (1,461 in total) last year.

Lancashire Police also recorded an increase of 77 per cent in the number of all anti-social behaviour arrests they made in 2020, compared with the previous five years (7,252).

Lancashire Telegraph: HIGH: Lancashire Police made the third highest amount of arrests for drunk and disorderlyHIGH: Lancashire Police made the third highest amount of arrests for drunk and disorderly

While not directly wishing to comment on the figures, the force urged people to visit an informative page on their website which deals with anti-social behaviour.

It advises the public on how to deal with drunk and disorderly people, as well as a variety of other anti-social situations members of the public may find themselves facing.

The website says: "The term anti-social behaviour covers a wide range of unacceptable activity that blights the lives of many people on a daily basis. It often leaves victims feeling helpless, desperate and with a seriously reduced quality of life.

"Anti-social behaviour can involve harm to an individual, to the wider community or to the environment.

"This could be an action by someone else that leaves you feeling alarmed, harassed or distressed. It also includes fear of crime or concern for public safety, public disorder or public nuisance.

"Lancashire Constabulary regularly hold PACT (Police and Communities Together) meetings and online ePACT meetings on their local Neighbourhood Policing Facebook pages to establish what issues are happening in each area.

'The police also regularly meet with partner organisations to address community priorities and what will be done to tackle these.

"Have a look at the Your Area page to find out who is in your local Neighbourhood Policing Team and how to contact them."

Only Merseyside Police (489 per 100,000) and Northumbria Police (785 per 100,000) made more arrests in 2020 - the latest recorded figures available.

This is in stark contrast to West Midlands Police, who made just two arrests per 100,000 people for drunk and disorderly behaviour.

West Midlands boast the second-largest police force in the country, covering an area of 248 square miles and dealing with 2,000 emergency calls every day.

The reason for such a low rate of arrests is thought to be the force’s use of dispersal orders to discourage anti-social behaviour such as public drunkenness as well as using community resolutions to deal with low-level offences without resorting to formal criminal justice sanctions.

A full look at the data provided by FROM MARS can be found HERE.