Victoria police will continue to play a role in responding to public drunkenness when it is decriminalised in November, according to state government documents, in a move that has raised the ire of the police union and the state’s Aboriginal legal service.
A draft service framework for the new health-based response to public intoxication describes police as being responsible for delivering a “secondary response” when primary health workers are not available, including “due to limitations in geographic coverage and times”.
