New public intoxication rules blasted as ‘plain stupid’ by police
A major upcoming change to the way intoxicated people are dealt with in Melbourne has received a frosty reaction from police.
Victoria Police have expressed concern over the relaxing of intoxication laws on Melbourne Cup day, citing fear it will leave officers with little power to make arrests.
Government documents have outlined a change in the state’s law to take effect on November 7 that will make it no longer illegal to be drunk in public.
The change gained state government approval in the wake of the inquest into the 2017 death of Aboriginal woman Tanya Day, who died from a serious head injury sustained in a police cell.
In what has been described by Victoria Police Association’s Wayne Gatt as “plain stupid”, the law will be replaced with a health-based approach.
The approach, which will align Victoria with all other states except Queensland, would involve drunk people being taken to a sobering-up centre or an alternative safe place.
Mr Gatt said while the union supported the move, he argued its rollout left a lot to be desired.
“What is clear from tender documents is that the framework that’s being proposed at this stage is not an equivalent one across the entire state,” he said.
“So what our members in regional Victoria will do post-November when they encounter public intoxication, as they indeed do most days, is entirely unclear to us.”
Police in other states, he argued, still had power to make arrests in some circumstances which the new law in Victoria would not allow for.
“That’s just plain stupid, and that’s just going to be a recipe for disaster,” Mr Gatt said.
“It may not be on the first day, but at some point somewhere, someone will be injured and hurt as a result, and we’ll sadly have to say we told you so.”
It has been forecasted that new public intoxication service providers will have an intake of at least 500 cases every month – almost double the volume of people arrested in the state for drunk and disorderly behaviour last year.
Mr Gatt flagged concern police may be pulled from critical front line duties to act as “secondary responders” when primary health providers weren’t available.
He said “time is ticking” on the government revealing exactly how the plan would be rolled out.
“The scope of the tender clearly does not cover the whole of the state and the financial cost will be enormous … All this at a time when the government is purportedly struggling to balance its budget,” he said.
Documents outlining the approach specified that service providers would be responsible for responding to public intoxication reports and providing initial support, monitoring, transport, short-term care, follow-up and referrals.
To meet KPIs, it will be required to answer 80 per cent of calls within 15 minutes.
Outreach and safety place services would be established for Aboriginal people in 10 areas and another service for the broader population would operate across Melbourne.
Local health and social support services would work alongside the new operation to help people access ongoing support.
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