One of these fine days - and I'm not holding my breath - the police will actually deal with drunks. The last time I looked, drunk and incapable; drunk in a public place; drunk and disorderly and drunk on licensed premises were POLICE matters, since they are all CRIMINAL offences under the various Licensing Acts. We in the LAS (and associated services) should NOT be coming into the picture AT ALL. If the police did ther job, their would be fewer assaults etc on NHS staff of all types. I know that a person in a state of acute intoxication can frequently be a pre-hospital emergency, especially if they are profoundly unconsc and unresponsive (ie GCS 3), and I say fine - we'll send an amb, but we SHOULD NOT BE DEALING with people who are drunk and abusive etc. As a sector controller, I categorically REFUSE to send ambulances to violent etc drunks when called by police (or anyone else, for that matter). When the police are on scene, and the situation has been calmed down - fine. I also do not see why we are called to people who are drunk in their own homes - so what???