Alcohol intelligence

Linda Hill

No, it’s not just a vodka slogan and a contradiction a new policing strategy being implemented in Australia New Zealand to reduce crime and traffic crashes by drinking to intoxication on licensed premises.

Alcohol is a significant aggravator of disorder, crime, domestic violence, injuries and road fatalities. It is estimated that 50-70 percent of incidents attended by Australian police are alcohol related. Recent New South Wales police data shows that 35 percent of all offenders who had been drinking – and 60 percent in urban areas – had been doing so on licensed premises. Half had been drinking on just 10 percent of the premises. Similarly in Wellington, New Zealand, 38 percent of drinking offenders had their last drink on licensed premises, with half coming from just 12 percent of the premises.i In Wellington and New South Wales, over threequarters of the offenders who had been drinking on licensed premises were described by police as moderately or extremely intoxicated.ii

It has long been known that improved enforcement of existing sale of liquor laws and high profile policing on licensed premises can reduce crime and other alcohol related harm.iii Australasian research has linked harm to drinking on certain types of premises, particularly late night pubs with high volume sales.iv It has also been shown that good servicing practices are more likely to be sustained if there is an expectation of enforcement.v Laws routinely prohibit licensees from serving intoxicated patrons, but the first court prosecution for this in New Zealand was taken only recently. Frontline police tend to focus on what is happening on the streets rather than what’s happening in pubs and clubs where, it is often said, drinking behaviour is ‘supervised’. From a police perspective, identified barriers to the enforcement of sale of liquorlaws are lack of routine ‘intelligence’ and cost-effective enforcement strategies, as well aslimited resources and alow priority given to alcohol issues.vi However,all that is about to change.

New Zealand’s Alcolink
In September 2005, NZ Police’s nation-wide Alcolink project became fully operational. Its aim is to help reduce crime and crashes associated with drinking on licensed premises through enhanced alcohol intelligence. Since 1 March 2005 police officers have recorded on all custody or charge sheets and traffic offence notices whether those involved have been drinking, assessed their level of intoxication on a four point scale and asked them where they had their last drink. If it was on licensed premises, the name and address of the bar or restaurant is recorded (see box).

All operational staff have undergone a 30 minute training package on how to identify levels of intoxication for the purposes of the Alcolink questions on charge sheets.

This information collected on charge sheets is then entered into a national computer database for analysis. In September, this new system began feeding back alcohol information to police districts as well as being used to analyse data for local or national patterns and trends. In each police district, the information on individual premises is fed back to licensees and used to inform cost-effective intelligence based policing – that is, to identify certain premises for closer monitoring, as shown in the following example.

This example comes from related research, undertaken as police geared up for the Alcolink project.This evaluated policing and regulatory responses to problem premises in Wellington city, underthe auspices of its ‘safer city’ policy. The aim was to identify the level of enforcement needed to maintain responsible serving practices and to develop a policing model that can be transferred to other districts following up on local findings from Alcolink. Licensees were informed that there would be increased enforcement of the law against serving intoxicated patrons, through late night visits by the local licensing team of police, licensing inspectorand public health officer, and through a high police presence on identified problem premises. Theresearch included factors that may influence effectiveness, such as the nature of police interactions with serving staff and patrons. The research design of two periods of heightened enforcement within a six month period, with limited base line data for measuring crime and injury outcomes, meant the study suggested effectiveness on some indicators and was inconclusive on others. A further, longer study period is needed. One lesson learned was that monitoring needs to be backed by prosecutions, not used as an alternative. During the period the licensing team set a high threshold of non-compliance before prosecuting or apply for licence cancellation. The licensees of targeted premises felt an on-going high police presence was unfair, and bad for business, if police found insufficient grounds for prosecution. Resentment was thought likely to undermine compliance rather than increase it.vii

A parallel study in the same city evaluated the policing of a ban on alcohol in public spaces. Local government powers were increased in 2000 and Wellington City implemented a liquor control by law in November 2003. Contrary to expectations, the ban did not reduce vandalism, public disorder and violence in its first year of operation. This ineffectiveness may relate to relatively light-handed policing, using warnings and infringement notices to minors rather than arrests.viii

Alcohol Linking Project, New South Wales
In New South Wales, an Alcohol Linking Project has been under way since early 2002, and has greatly increased awareness of the role that alcohol plays in crime (see graph). In western New South Wales, 50 incidents a day involve offenders who have been drinking and in 19 of these the victims have also been drinking.

Police feed the information back to licensees and audit the worst 8 percent of premises to ensure theyare complying with the Liquor Act. For example, between April 2002 and March 2003 there were 191 incidents linked to one night club. After three feedback letters and two covert audits with feedback, the linking data was used in evidence for a police complaint under S.104 of the Act. Additional conditions were placed on the licence and the licensee changed both servicing practices and the firm providing him with door security. Incidents linked to this night club fell to 81 in the year that followed.

This project was evaluated using a randomised controlled trial. For premises that received intervention of this kind, alcohol-related incidents reported by police dropped 36 percent, compared to a 21 percent drop for premises that received normal policing methods. In a subsequent effectiveness evaluation involving 2500 police implementing the programme as part of routine policing practice, there was a 13 percent drop in incidents linked to premises that received targeting enforcement policing, with a 32 percent drop in major motor vehicle accidents and an 11.7 percent drop in assaults linked to these premises.ix

Last Drink Surveys
Although New South Wales has taken the lead with state-wide implementation of this approach, the concept originated in New Zealand. When the 1989 Sale of Liquor Act liberalised liquor licensing, the number of outlets rapidly doubled and hours of trading increased. The national Liquor Licensing Authority retained most decision-making power but administration and monitoring was devolved to local level. Licensing inspectors are now employed by councils, and district police and the regional Medical Officer of Health have specific reporting and enforcement roles. In the first years under the new Act, a community health action research project was funded to encourage collaboration between these three local agencies.x One of the project’s initiatives was called the Last Drink Survey. Public health units (or contracted community health organisations) undertook to process and analyse information on alcohol and intoxication, including the place of last drink, that police recorded in relation to traffic offences. Findings were fed back to the police, the licensing inspector and to local bars and restaurants. Premises that ranked high in the survey were visited by inspectors, offered advice by health promoters and targeted by traffic police.

The validity of findings was initially questioned, as licensees thought patrons might lie rather than jeopardise their favourite watering hole. However, the Liquor Licensing Authority accepted Last Drink Survey findings as part of presented evidence on poor management and lack of suitability to hold a liquor licence.

Over 15 years, most New Zealand police districts have collected andused Last Drink Survey data at least sporadically for traffic offences. Police districts are operationally independent and continuous; consistent data collection has been difficult to achieve. However, by the late 1990s, one public health unit had a regional data series that it analysed to show the effects of a drinking age change on drinkdriving.

Alcohol questions were included on a nationally-used charge sheet for domestic violence, but were seldom analysed. Police districts in the Auckland region extended this to charge sheets for all crimes. Alcohol Healthwatch, the alcohol advocacy organisation analysing the Auckland data, developed an improved methodology and began offering training to other areas.

In 2002, it was contracted to undertake a national review of Last Drink Surveys. This led to the current commitment by NZ Police to a nationally consistent operational practice with a fully analysable national database.

Partnership between police and health promoters
In both New Zealand and Australia, this approach developed as a successful collaboration between police and health promoters – with assistance at key points from alcohol researchers and health research funding sources. The current police projects are partly funded by the Accident Compensation Corporation, a stateagency with a role in accident prevention as well as socialised compulsory injury insurance.

The essence of the strategy is feedback to licensees, with followup visits to encourage compliance, as part of targeted and, therefore, cost-effective enforcement practices. Continual feedback is also the key to successful police implementation. Faced with increased form-filling, police must ensure that accurate data collection on alcohol is important for them, that it will be analysed promptly to become a tool they can use in effective enforcement.

Evidence of reduced local harm linked to changed bar practices fed back to front line police can also reinforce commitment.xi Effective implementation of an alcohol intelligence and enforcement strategy rests on front-line officers being confident that this will help them reduce the alcohol-related harm they see in their community every weekend.

References

i A further 20 percent of offenders had been drinking takeaway alcohol in a public place. Most public drinking is by people under the legal age of purchase or by young adults moving betweenpremises – see Bennett, S., G. Buchanan, J. Fill and C. Coggan (2003) Enhancing safer alcohol practices by youth in public places: A national analysis. Auckland: Injury Prevention Research Centre,University of Auckland.

ii J. Wiggers and S. Murray (2005) Alco- Link. ALAC Working Together Conference. Auckland: 1-2 March. www.alcohol.org.nz

iii Jeffs, B.W. and W.M. Saunders (1983)Minimizing alcohol related offences by enforcement of the existing licensignlegislation. British Journal of Addiction,78: 67-77; McKnight, A.J. and F.M. Streff(1994) The effect of enforcement uponservice of alcohol to intoxicated patronsof bars and restaurants. Accident Analysis& Prevention, 26: 79-88; Doherty, S. and A.M. Roche (2003) Alcohol and licensed premises: Best practice in policing. Payneham, SA: Australasian Centre forPolicing Research. www.health.gov.au

iv Casswell, S., J-F. Zhang and A. Wyllie(1993) The importance of amount and location of drinking for the experience ofalcohol-related problems. Addiction, 88, 1527-1534; Stockwell T, P. Somerford andE. Lang (1992) The relationship between licence type and alcohol related problems attributed to licensed premises in Perth, Western Australia. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 53: 495-498;Chikritzhs, T. and T. Stockwell (2002)The impact of later trading hours for Australian public houses (hotels) on levels of violence. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 63(5): 591-560.

v Stockwell, T. (2001) Responsible alcohol service: Lessons from evaluations of server training and policing initiatives. Drug & Alcohol Review, 20: 257-265.

vi Wiggers, J., M. Jauncey, R. Considine, R. et al. (2004) Strategies and outcomes intranslating alcohol harm reductionresearch into practice: The Alcohol Linking Program. Drug and Alcohol Review, 23: 355-364.

vii Sim, M., E. Morgan, and J. Batchelor(2005) The impact of enforcement on intoxication and alcohol related harm. Accident Compensation Corporation:Wellington.

viii Sim, M., E. Morgan, and J. Batchelor(2005) Wellington City Council liquor control bylaw evaluation report. NZ Police: Wellington.

ix Wiggers and Murray (2005).

x Stewart, L., S. Casswell and A. Thomson (1997) Promoting public health in liquor licensing: Perceptions of the role ofalcohol community workers. Contemporary Drug Problems, 24(1), 1-37.

xi Wiggers et al. (2004).