[comment caption=Do you feel safe in Queenstown?]While some Queenstown bar-owners were worried about the effects 4am closing will have on their businesses, Otago Rural Police area commander Inspector Phil Jones says he is more concerned by the resort's dramatic rise in violence over the past year.
Insp Jones said Queenstown was a "national leader" in violent crime statistics.
"There has been a 17% increase in violent crime across the country this year.
"In Queenstown there has been a 14% increase, so we are near the top.
"That is not something we want to be top of," he said.
He was responding to questions about the reasons for him making a public statement in this week's Lakes Weekly Bulletin, under the heading "NZ Police committed to making Queenstown a safer place to live".
In the statement Insp Jones said 97% of people arrested for violence in Queenstown were affected by alcohol.
"You are 8.5 times more likely to be the victim of a violent attack in licensed premises in Queenstown than the rest of the country," he wrote.
Insp Jones also responded to suggestions police were supporting the move to 4am closing times to "improve police roster hours".
"Let me get some things straight. The Queenstown police are totally unbiased on this issue; we are not motivated by profit, but merely seek to make Queenstown a safer and better place to live," he wrote.
He told the Otago Daily Times yesterday that police and the Queenstown Lakes District Council believed the 4am curfew would lower the number of alcohol-fuelled offences.
Police were also working on a report about Queenstown's crime rate which was expec-ted to be completed in about a month.
He hoped the data would give police and other agencies a detailed understanding of "what is happening, where and when it is happening and who is doing it".
As well as the liquor curfew being implemented in Queenstown's CBD, he said police would look at inter-national case studies and try to find other possible solutions to implement in the resort.
Earlier this week, at a Liquor Licensing Authority hearing, Tardis Ltd director Scott Stevens said most late licence patrons were hospitality industry workers who needed to have a place to drink and socialise after work.
But Insp Jones said the law allowed bar workers to stay for an hour after closing and have "after-work drinks".
He also dismissed the idea that, being a resort town, Queenstown was somehow "different".
"The only difference I can see is the amount of violence - otherwise I don't believe it is any different from most towns and cities in New Zealand."
He said the rest of the community - including bar owners - had to play their part to make Queenstown a safer place.
"The council has been helping quite a bit - but it also has to be the people," he said.
Mr Stevens said last night he had been unable to get a copy of the statistics being quoted by police and would like more details, especially of how they related to visitors to the town and permanent residents.
"But I believe we do act responsibly. There are victims, we are not denying it, but it's an emotional issue too," he said.
