Birmingham’s leading entertainment boss Mike Olley has labelled ‘needle spiking’ as a ‘heinous, weaselly crime’ and has urged victims to report incidents.
Mike Olley, general manager of Westside Business Improvement District (BID), was interviewed by national news agency PA Media following an increase in reports of needle spiking.
Mr Olley explained that the issue was not something that Westside venues, security staff or police had come across in recent years, but he stressed that this did not mean that the potential was being ignored.
Full interview here: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/broad-street-boss-says-needle-21947121
In the interview, which was used by BirminghamLive (the online sister of the Birmingham Mail) and various other media websites, he said: “Any threat against women or anyone is something we’re very hot on. We want people to come here and have a good night out.
” I think the media coverage has heightened everyone’s concerns on this and I can give an absolute assurance that every venue, and every person who works on this street is tuned into this, and that means that their actions are sharper.
“Although we’ve had no reports [of spiking] in the 17 years that I’ve been here, we are not ignoring it. We are sharp on this, make no mistake.
“The issue is, if this is going on we need to know about it, the authorities need to know about it, indeed I think it’s quite right that the home secretary has asked all the police forces around the country to get the figures in.
“Because we’ve got to know what the strength of the situation is around this. It’s a heinous, weaselly crime, it’s got to be dealt with, and part of dealing with crime and disorder is knowing what the level of it is like. So please do report it.”
