The misuse of alcohol imposes huge costs on New Zealand, conservatively estimated in the billions of dollars each year said Assistant Commissioner Howard Broad announcing the launch of the Police Alcohol Action Plan.
"Overseas studies suggest that between 50 - 70 per cent of all police work is associated in some way with dealing with alcohol-fuelled incidents," said Mr Broad.
"The increase in the number of licenses issued, and the lowering of the drinking age have added to the situation and has lead to Police obtaining more robust intelligence and research data on which to base more effective policing strategies."
New Zealand's binge-drinking culture, the problems caused when people make poor choices after they've drunk too much, impact on general duties, criminal investigation, road policing and communications centre staff, plus many others in the organisation.
Alcohol misuse is a genuinely cross-cutting issue for Police.
Its sheer scale has resulted in the development of a specific Alcohol Action Plan.
The aim of the Plan is to improve Police's ability to prevent ad reduce alcohol-related harm with the objectives of:
• minimising alcohol-related crime and crashes;
• tailoring responses for special events and population groups;
• developing and supporting our workforce;
• investing in research and evaluation.
Similar initiatives are underway in Australian states with a big push being made in this area in the UK.
Police have established a process - Alco-link - for the collection, collation and analysis of alcohol-related intelligence information.
"This is an important tool for decision making and the deployment of police resources to deal with alcohol-related crime."
In the last six months of 2005 the extent of alcohol-related crime was measured with 47,119 alleged offenders having consumed alcohol prior to committing an offence = 258 offenders a day = 1 offender every 5.6 minutes.
"We're not talking about people who've had just one or two drinks."
The study of the last place where offenders consumed alcohol shows that of the 56% who took their last drinks in a private home, 71% were deemed to be moderately or extremely affected by alcohol, of the 29% who had their last drinks on licensed premises - 76% and of the 14% who had their last drinks in a public place such as a park, club or on the street, 96% were deemed to be moderately or extremely affected by alcohol.
In the last six months of 2005, 18% of all licensed premises in New Zealand featured one or more times in the alco-link research.
"Our intelligence clearly indicates that the consumption of alcohol in homes and public places has a greater impact on alcohol-related crime than licensed premises alone.
This should be of real concern to society and the way we regard the consumption of alcohol and the downstream effects this has on our rates of crime," said Assistant Commissioner Broad.
ENDS