CAPITAL'S COPS IN BLITZ ON VIOLENCE; 40 extra keep Christmas calm.

Byline: NICK HENEGAN

CARDIFF's Christmas party season is in full swing as hundreds take to the streets.

Dinner-jacketed men swagger through the city centre, their girlfriends struggling to keep up in their high heeled shoes.

Everyone is excited. It should be a good night. But good nights can so easily turn sour.

Just a few hours later one black-tied man accused of belting his girlfriend is hauled away by police.

"They always look great at the start of the night but when they've got some drink inside them it's a different story", says Sergeant Mal Lewis as we patrol the city centre.

"You wonder how many of those suits are going to be returned in one piece."

Christmas is a busy time for Sgt Lewis and colleagues in the South Wales Police.

They reckon up to 200,000 people will be in the city at its busiest in the run up to Christmas. It will not help that many will have been on the booze, so increasing the chance of violence.

The force is putting an extra 40 officers on the streets to tackle drink-related problems.

They will impose bail conditions to keep violent thugs out of Cardiff over the next few weeks.

Inspector Bob Tooby said: "We've got enough officers to encourage good behaviour, but if people misbehave we've enough officers to ensure they're banged up."

Everything is quiet as I accompany Sgt Lewis on the beat. As we stroll through the Winter Wonderland we see plenty of families and older people shopping.

"Our presence makes them feel safe," he says. "And anyone out for a drink who sees us will think twice about doing anything wrong."

Undercover cops are also patrolling the streets ready to crackdown on trouble as part of the pre-Christmas blitz. "The new system has been great," insists Phil Marchant who patrols in plain clothes, "People just don't realise you are a policeman."

Almost on cue a fight breaks out in front of us. A gang of men thrown out of a pub try to take revenge on doormen before brawling among themselves.

Pc Marchant steps in to break up the fight. Six colleagues join him. The entire incident is captured on CCTV.

As the pubs chuck out violence breaks out every 15 minutes or so, but the fights are always short-lived because the police are there so fast.

Pc Pete Ashby, who began working in Cardiff in 1998, says: "When I started about six officers covered the whole city centre and you couldn't be in two places at once.

"Now there are so many of us we can respond quickly to stop incidents getting out of hand. Cardiff is a much safer as a result."

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