The impact of a lockout policy on levels of alcohol-related incidents in and around licensed premises

Abstract

This paper reports on the impact of a lockout policy on levels of alcohol-related offences in and around licensed premises. The lockout policy prevents patrons from entering or re-entering late night trading licensed premises for a specific period prior to closure. A modified police activity log was utilised by all first response operational police to record their attendance at incidents in and around licensed premises. Chi-square analyses of the prevalence of incidents before and after implementation of the lockout policy demonstrated that the number of alcohol-related offences requiring police attention was significantly proportionally lower following the liquor trading changes. Alcohol-related offences, particularly those related to disturbances and sexual offences were significantly reduced following the introduction of the lockout policy. However, while offences related to property, stealing and assault experienced a reduced trend, these did not reach significance. In contrast, traffic offence rates were unchanged. The findings of the study provide supportive evidence that lockout initiatives have potential as a major crime prevention technique to reduce specific types of alcohol-related offences.