Reducing alcohol-related injury and harm: The impact of a licensed premises lockout policy

Objective. Alcohol-related incidents remain a considerable burden on policing resources in a number of Australian States and often involve injury and distress. This paper reports on a study designed to determine the impact of a lockout policy on levels of alcohol-related offences in and around licensed premises. The lockout policy prevented patrons from entering or re-entering late night trading licensed premises for a specific period prior to closure i.e., between 3am-5am. Material and methods. A modified police activity log was utilized by all first response operational police to record the reason for their attendance at incidents in and around licensed premises in an Australian tourist city. Results. Chi-square analyses of the prevalence of incidents before and after implementation of the lockout policy demonstrated that the overall number of alcohol-related incidents requiring police attention was significantly proportionally lower following the introduction of the lockout policy. More specifically, alcohol-related incidents that involved general disturbances and sexual offences were significantly reduced after the policy was implemented. However, it is noted that offences that related to property, stealing and assaults experienced a reduced trend, but they did not reach statistical levels of significance. In contrast, traffic offence rates were unchanged. Discussion and conclusions. The findings of the study provide initial supportive evidence regarding the value of lockout initiatives to reduce injury and harm in and around licensed premises. The paper will further outline the major implications of the policy as a major crime prevention technique and highlight the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the approach by the major stakeholders.