The dedicated traffic alcohol group and rural drink-drive teams will be disestablished on January 18 as part of the Southern district's restructure of road policing.
Nearly all the submissions received from staff about the changes opposed disbanding the two specialist units.
The Southern district includes 2100km of state highways and more than 15,000km of other roads.
Seventy-six fulltime staff are employed on road policing.
No staff cuts are planned under the restructuring.
District road policing manager Inspector Tania Baron said the traffic alcohol group (TAG) and rural drink-drive (RDD) teams would be absorbed into the road policing sections in each area.
The restructure document was aimed at reducing death and injuries caused by crashes and reducing motorists' speed.
It was circulated to staff in August and 26 submissions were received.
In a report to staff, Insp Baron said one of the key themes of the submissions was the undesirability of disbanding the specialist units.
"Nearly all'' the submissions opposed the change, she said, and concerns had been raised about how staff would cover "high-risk'' alcohol events and carry out targeted alcohol enforcement.
One of the submissions said alcohol and drug impairment was one of the largest causes of serious road crashes in the Southern district and nationally, contributing to about a third of all road deaths.
"We believe that if the current review is implemented as proposed, it will have a negative impact on fatal and serious crashes, with numbers increasing due to a loss of dedicated and specialist road policing units such as RDD and HWP [highway patrol],'' the submission said.
The RDD had performed to a high standard since its formation in 2008 and dissolving the unit "in favour of a generalised hybrid road policing force'' would have a negative impact, the submission said.
Insp Baron said the restructure was to "enhance our deployment to intelligence-identified risks''.
"Using a variety of data sets, police have applied an evidence-based approach to ensuring we have the right numbers of staff, in the right locations, at the right times, to contribute to reducing death and injury on our roads and lowering the mean speed.
"The restructure has allowed police to move towards increased speed enforcement coverage across the district's highway networks during peak flow, constant levels of urban enforcement, and a greater focus on alcohol enforcement by more staff.''
When the new structure was implemented, motorists could expect to see more police patrols on the roads, she said.
"They will also be more likely to undergo an alcohol breath-screening test by one of our officers on a more regular basis.''
The restructure document said statistics from January 2012 to December 2014 highlighted "concerning trends'' - an overall increase in the number of fatal crashes, and in turn fatalities, in the Southern district.
One of the submissions said such a small sample was "misleading'' when used for decision-making.
Statistics from the NZTA website from 2009-14 showed a decline in the number of fatal crashes and fatalities in the region, the submission said.
Other police districts, such as Canterbury and Waikato, where specialist drink-drive units had been disestablished, later ended up returning their RDD to service, the staff submission said.
The Otago Lakes-Central police area had high international and domestic tourist numbers, seasonal workers and a high number of events and liquor licences issued, so it qualified as "a community where impairment on the roads is a high risk''.
Under the restructuring proposal, specific alcohol enforcement would be undertaken as a secondary measure to general road policing duties, which did not allow for the variety of community integration which contributed to the success of the TAG and RDD teams, the submission said.
Insp Baron said the planned changes continued to demonstrate New Zealand Police as a "world-class service at the forefront of preventive policing''.
"Working together with our communities and partners, we continue to do everything we can to make people be safe and feel safe on our roads in New Zealand.''
Otago Daily Times questions about the future of the "booze bus'', what happened when dedicated drink-drive units were disbanded in other police districts and whether the Otago Lakes-Central area should be seen as a "special case'' for road policing were not answered by Insp Baron.
