Booze control leads to better behaviour

“We want punters to remember events for all the right reasons,” says Inspector Tracey Patterson, Alcohol Programmes Manager. Photo: Chris Budge

Police are spearheading a change in our drinking culture, with more active planning and alcohol management.

As always, staff were kept busy over the Christmas/New Year holiday period but there were no reports of the mass disorder that used to be commonplace, says Inspector Tracy Patterson, Alcohol Programmes Manager.

“Police are working more proactively with councils and event managers to come up with tactics to reduce alcohol-related harm and it’s made a huge difference.”

Alcohol harm reduction officers started planning for New Year’s events months ago. “Their relationship with event managers isn’t easy,” says Tracy.

“Organisers make a lot of money out of these events and they need to take some real responsibility and ensure harm is minimised.

“Police are purely interested in public safety so there’s potentially a conflict of interest.

“We sell it in terms of the event’s longevity – create a safe event and people will want to come back next year.”

She favours a carrot and stick approach. Police help organisers come up with tactics to get it right and if they don’t, they risk future licences or prosecution.

Rhythm and Vines was arrest-free this year. Photo: NZPA

Tracy spent New Year with 25,000 punters at the Rhythm and Vines music festival in Gisborne. The alcohol management plan included provision for food, non-alcoholic drinks, free drinking water and alcohol monitors who regularly walked through the crowd to check levels of intoxication.

If people were getting a bit merry, the number of drinks people could buy at one time was reduced. Although there were no arrests, Tracy thinks more could be done to get it right.

“We have to keep pushing for change rather than just accepting police will clean up the mess all the time.”

Other tactics used around the country include

• temporarily shutting bars and evacuating patrons so they can have a break and be reassessed when they come back in
• regular meetings between police and organisers to evaluate behaviour and intoxication levels
• refusing service and entry to venues
• a wristband system, which proved very effective at Addington Races in Christchurch last November. Intoxicated people had their wristbands taken off them. No band, no booze.