The ‘danger’ the police union boss fears when public drunkenness laws change

Victoria’s police union boss fears there’s “danger” the state will go back to the concerning situation it faced in the 1990s when public drunkenness is decriminalised.

“People were clocking each other in the CBD and kids were ending up in The Alfred because we were struggling to control the situation,” Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt told Neil Mitchell.

Mr Gatt says police “leant on” public drunkenness laws to “clean up the streets and make them safe” at the time, but with public drunkenness to be decriminalised in November, those laws won’t be available to them.

Press PLAY below to hear why Wayne Gatt is concerned

“The answer is to proceed with the reform but don’t pull the rug out from police,” he said.

“Give them residual powers, give them the ability to deal with people who say no.

“This model that the government proposes is predicated on people saying yes — yes I’ll go to a sobering up centre, yes I’ll go to a hospital, yes I’ll go with the Aboriginal service that’s coming out to help me.

“It will become a mess.”