Police praise the use of ID scanners in pubs

Newcastle police say a new system of linked ID scanners is not only being used by inner city pubs to reduce anti-social behaviour, but is also helping to solve crimes.

The ID scanners have been installed at several inner city pubs to stop banned patrons moving between venues and to quell alcohol-fuelled violence.

Newcastle Local area commander, Superintendent John Gralton says licensees are also providing police with information from the scanners which has helped in criminal investigations.

"We have used the system to assist us in the investigation of some other crimes," he said.

"Certainly has multiple benefits.

"It just makes it safer for everybody inside the venue.

"We've used the information to help us with some investigations later on.

Wether it be an assault on the premises or wether it be offences that have occurred elsewhere.

We have footage on CCTV where we can match the description with the data on those systems."

Newcastle now has only one licensed premises on the state's violent venues list..at one stage the city had seven venues on the list, including the top two.

Superintendant Gralton says licensees and police are committed to working together to ensure the CBD is safe for the whole community.

"I think it culminated with the Newcastle entertainment precinct security scanning and barring system certainly supports a lot of the stuff the police are doing," he said.

"We used to have seven venues on the most violent list.

"We actually had position one and two covered for quite some time.

"The introduction of the barring system and consequence policing strategies, we have seven down to one and that's a great result for the community."

Source: ABC News, 3 June 2013