WHILE I commend the Argus for raising the issue of enforcement of the begging laws, the feature in Monday’s edition failed to explain the actually rather compassionate case for the police taking enforcement action.

This is not some random, oppressive policy but carefully targeted action which is one small part of an overall strategy to help the homeless.

In some cases prosecution is necessary because the person begging is not actually homeless and is in effect engaging in a form of fraud on the generous public.

In other cases there may be genuinely homeless people, sometimes with complex drink, drug and/or mental health problems, who refuse to engage with the various agencies trying to help rough sleepers.

In these cases it is only with the coercion of the law – ie the prospect of prosecution – that some vulnerable people will accept help.

Rather than the cruel, uncaring, thoughtless policy that the Argus article implied, a carefully targeted prosecution policy is sometimes the only way of ensuring the most vulnerable people receive the help they need.

Fifteen years ago when I was in CID, we had a problem with begging and there was a real mixture of people.

One man we caught lived in Worthing and used to commute in on the train. He was an exception but there is a real mixture. Most of the money given in begging is spent on drugs and we had people who had been in prison who would beg and spend the money on heroin but as they had not had the drug recently they would die.

There is no way that a person living on the street for eight years will not have been offered help by voluntary and statutory services in Brighton and Hove.

If someone refuses help, do you leave them on the streets or take action in a way that compels them to get help?

If you arrest them it can force them into counselling for a drug problem or whatever it is. So sometimes it needs that intervention. Some people are missing the point in that intervention can be very productive.

  • Graham Cox is a former Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of Sussex CID and is also a former city councillor.