Queenstown police are repeating their call for a blanket 2am closing time for bars to help stop alcohol-related crime.
The availability of alcohol in the early hours was a major cause of alcohol-related crime, Queenstown Senior Sergeant John Fookes said yesterday.
More than half of intoxicated offenders arrested in Queenstown told police they had consumed their last drink at a bar even though bar owners knew it was illegal to serve alcohol to drunks, Mr Fookes said.
Queenstown District police figures released last weekend said 96 percent of people arrested after 10pm in the first two weeks of August were affected by alcohol. After 2am, that figure rose to 100 percent, the Otago Daily Times reported.
"Offenders are almost exclusively adversely affected by alcohol after 11pm and you can extend that to a lesser degree a great majority who are victims of offences in the CBD in those early hours are affected by alcohol," Mr Fookes said.
The number was higher for Queenstown because of a large number of licensed premises in a comparatively small area, Mr Fookes said.
NZPA