New internal figures from Northern Territory police show a significant drop in crime in Alice Springs since the re-introduction of alcohol restrictions, but experts are divided on whether the bans have been effective.
In late January, a suite of immediate measures restricting alcohol sales was launched, including trialling takeaway alcohol-free days on Monday and Tuesday and limiting trading hours to 3-7pm on other days, excluding Saturdays.
A month on, new data shows break-ins are down 45 per cent and there has been a 30 per cent decrease in domestic violence and a 36 per cent decrease in youth disturbances.
A leaked NT Police document has revealed the force is recommending additional restrictions to the sale of liquor in Alice Springs, including further restricting bottle shop opening hours and introducing volume limits for customers.
The briefing document, signed off by Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy, shows current measures targeting an uptick in crime and anti-social behaviour in the central Australian town are having a positive impact on the community.
Speaking to Sky News, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says there has been a reduction in incidents across the community since the bans came into effect.
"There is no doubt that our antisocial behaviour in our family and domestic violence and assaults have reduced markedly — the statistics are very clear with that," he said.
"There's a whole lot of other indicators here that can clearly show that there's been a reduction of harm in the community."
Experts disagree over effectiveness of restrictions
Domestic violence researcher Dr Chay Brown, from the Australian National University, has cautioned against reading too much into figures from such a short time period.
"Based off of the data that they've presented, no researcher worth their salt would make such bold claims based off of a couple of weeks of rather clumsily collected data," Dr Brown said.
"We tend in Alice Springs to have a spike in crime that occurs in December in January in line with the school holidays.
"In the data period that they're referring to is when kids have gone back to school, and there are a number of other interventions at play."
Dr Brown is concerned that the figures could be interpreted as alcohol bans being an effective way to address entrenched problems and used to support further bans.
But People's Action Against Alcohol Coalition spokesman Dr John Boffa hailed the results from police as "amazing news".
"Even Blind Freddy could see the alcohol restrictions are having a very positive impact on the community," he said.
"You don't need to be an academic to observe the changes that we're seeing, like a drop in alcohol-related domestic violence incidents from an average of seven a day in December to what is now an average of two per day."
Dr Boffa disputed that the reduction in crime was largely because of seasonality, saying the summer months have only historically seen small peaks in crime.
"We've never on record had a peak like the one we just saw," he said.
"Both police data and hospital data back up that the improvements we've seen cannot be attributed to anything but the alcohol restrictions."
He said the recent re-introduction of the Stronger Futures alcohol bans for Aboriginal remote communities and town camps had also supported improvements to community safety.
The federal government committed $14 million for policing after the prime minister visited Alice Springs in January, where the alcohol bans were announced.
The Commonwealth has also pledged a further quarter-of-a-billion dollars for youth diversion and engagement, job creation, remote service delivery, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder treatment, family support including domestic violence services and on-country learning.
However, a snap report on alcohol policies commissioned by the federal and NT governments recommended needs-based funding for the Territory to resource the justice system and remote services properly. That recommendation has so far been ignored.
Dr Brown says further investment in police is not the best way to deliver better outcomes for Alice Springs.
"Theoretically, with more police on the street they're intervening in more crimes, they're catching more things. So they should be reporting an increase in all of these things as they're doing their job.
"The fact that we're seeing a decrease very quickly is actually quite worrying.
"That suggests to me that there is stigma and shame in the community, probably around alcohol, and that perhaps they're not seeking the services that they require to get the support that they need."
Police recommend further restrictions
In the leaked document, NT Police Deputy Commissioner Murphy said he would like to see the alcohol restrictions go further.
"A concern still exists in regard to the availability of take-away alcohol on Saturdays," he said.
"This day of the week by its nature sees increased consumption of alcohol by community members and as such is somewhat in contradiction to the intended or wanted outcomes and the hours of Wednesday to Friday."
Deputy Commissioner Murphy said he held "similar, if not greater concern" around controlling the volume of liquor sold.
Currently, bottle shop sales in Alice Springs are limited to one sale, per person, per day.
North of Alice Springs, the town of Tennant Creek has volume restrictions enforced on the sale of alcohol, limiting customers to 24 cans of full-strength beer or 12 cans of ready-to-drink mixes per day.
"The measures in Tennant Creek have provided evidence over a number of years that volume control has a substantial effect on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related offending," deputy commissioner Murphy said.
"This also reduces options of secondary supply."
The document also recommends exploring the introduction of the Banned Drinkers Register (BDR) at licensed venues in Alice Springs, which is currently only used at bottle shops.
The BDR, which identifies people who are banned from purchasing alcohol, had about 2,800 Territorians blacklisted as of July, 2022.
Deputy commissioner Murphy said trialling the BDR at licensed venues would allow police to address the "gap" that has long existed when it comes to regulating banned drinkers' alcohol consumption at pubs and clubs.
He also flagged an expected uptake in the secondary supply of liquor due to the increased level of restrictions introduced in Alice Springs.
The central Australian town has faced intense national attention in recent months due to escalating crime and social issues engulfing the region.
Blanket alcohol bans were reimposed in Aboriginal remote communities and town camps last month, after pressure built on the NT government to reverse changes made in July, 2022.
