Last Drinks:
The Blood Alcohol Concentration Level of People Entering and Leaving Brisbane and Gold Coast Entertainment Districts.
SmartStart was an initiative run in 2014 to quantify the level of alcohol preloading in Qld entertainment districts. More than 3,000 people were assessed as they entered the entertainment districts, of which 80% had preloaded with alcohol. In light of possible lockout laws being enacted in Queensland in 2016 we wished to derive data to inform evidence-based politics.
In 2015 we started the Last Drinks project, a study to follow-up on patron’s drinking through the night by assessing people’s blood alcohol concentration levels as they left the entertainment district. A collaborative project between Qld Police and Griffith University, this study has so far assessed over 2,000 patrons leaving the entertainment districts. This presentation will detail the methodology of data collection, first results from the study and make policy recommendations based upon our outcomes.
Prof. Grant J. Devilly, Griffith University
&
Inspector Corey Allen, Queensland Police
3.00pm to 4.00pm in 35 AC 04
Prof. Devilly completed his earlier degrees in the UK and his postgraduate degrees in Australia. Having worked as a senior lecturer at Melbourne University (Criminology) and as a Professorial Fellow at Swinburne University (Brain Sciences) he is now in the School of Applied Psychology at Griffith University. His research foci include: the treatment and prevention of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; the phenomenology of forgetting; the effects of violent video games; and best treatment approaches for adolescent sex offenders. Recently Grant has been researching the extent of alcohol consumption before and after entering entertainment districts and also the effects of immersion in videogames and the effects of gaming on anger, aggression and prosocial activities.
Inspector Allen joined the Queensland Police in 1986 and is currently appointed to the Field Training Constable Development Unit at the Qld Police Academy. Until 2016 he was the Officer in Charge of Queensland’s largest station – Brisbane City. During his time at Brisbane City Police he also intermittently performed duties as OIC at Fortitude Valley. As Officer in Charge of the Street Prostitution Unit in 2002 Senior Sergeant Allen’s team significantly reduced the number of women at risk in the industry by actively targeting drug dealing, assaults against street workers and increasing referral and support for women and men at risk. Career highlights include the recent receipt of the National Crime and Violence Prevention award (2010) for work at Kelvin Grove Urban Village, helping to reconnect and stabilise a rapidly growing affordable housing community. He develop a local program targeting young homeless persons in Brisbane that was awarded the State Child Protection Award 2013 for diverting young people from homelessness using cultural and community of origin connections. In 2012 he received a second and third National Crime and Violence Prevention Award for the City Police Vulnerable Persons Strategy guiding a long term approach to strategic policing in the City. In 2013 his project “Youth Cultural Hotspots” was the State Child Protection Award winner and later in 2014 notched up a fourth National Crime Prevention Award from the Australian Institute of Criminology. In October 2013 Corey was awarded Alumnus of the Year for Griffith University School of Criminology and over all Alumnus of the Year for the faculty of Arts, Education and Law.
