Licensing Inspectors are being used side-by-side with police officers to monitor people buying alcohol in bottle shops in Alice Springs, after the removal of some police axillary liquor inspectors from the town, an NT Police press release with no spokesperson’s name on it has retrospectively announced.

The trial was announced in a statement released on Thursday afternoon, stating it had begun on April 17 – the day after the end of a snap youth curfew – and will run until May 10.

The trial is a collaboration between NT Police and the Department of Industry, Tourism, and Trade, with an aim to “evaluate the effectiveness of a collaborative approach” of having both police officers and licensing inspectors working side-by-side doing take away alcohol point-of-sale checks.

It was not explained why the trial was not fully announced at the time it began.

Alice Springs Superintendent Drew Slape was quoted in the statement saying he welcomed the trial and noted the positive progress it has made, emphasising the importance of collaboration between departments to reduce alcohol related harm in the community.

“We acknowledge that police presence will always reduce anti-social behaviour in public locations, however we must balance this alongside the best use of police resources,” he said.

“Police will continue to maintain a presence at all packaged licensed premises in Alice Springs whilst the trial is underway.”

An April 12 press release from Chief Minister Eva Lawler detailing the government’s plans following the end of the night-time youth curfew in Alice Springs, which was imposed on March 27, stated there would be full police coverage on bottle shops in the town but later said sworn police officers “and other authorised officers” would fully cover Alice Springs bottle shops.

Police Minister Brent Potter announced on February 27 that he was looking at ways that 32 PALIs who were working in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Katherine would be moved to Darwin to complete a ‘fast-tracked’ training course to turn them into full police officers with a return to the streets in June. PALIs have the power to prevent takeaway alcohol sales at bottle shops based on checking patrons’ ID to ensure they have a residential address to drink, and can use new powers to place individuals onto the Banned Drinker Register.

Mr Potter said at the time he could “assure Territorians in Tennant Creek, Katherine and Alice Springs, they would still see a PALI, a constable or a licensing inspector on the bottle shops to deter people misusing alcohol”.

According to an ABC Alice Springs report on March 20, however, smaller bottle shops and IGAs were without an in-store police presence and forced to rely on mobile units, with Mr Potter quoted as saying bottle shops would be “adequately” manned until the PALIs returned in June, after being retrained as constables.

Mr Potter told the ABC when PALIs did return, Alice Springs may still lack full coverage at all liquor outlets and said that would be a decision for senior police to make. In the same article NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy told the ABC that 13 PALIs remained in the town as of March 20.

The NT Police Association had said that official NT Police figures from March 30 last year put the number of full time equivalent PALI positions at 43, however a government press release from June 2019 said there had been 75 PALIs recruited.

Ms Lawler declared the youth curfew as part of an “emergency situation” for Alice Springs on March 27, after a day of rioting in the troubled town, pledging to send more police officers to restore order for two weeks, including the 33 PALIs Mr Potter removed from the community two weeks previously to undertake training.

The previous week the ABC reported the then-Acting Assistant Commissioner James Grey-Spence saying bottle shops would not be permanently staffed while PALIs retrained but federal Member for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, criticised the move, suggesting there were several incidences of violence in Alice Springs bottle shops since the PALIs were removed. She said she had raised her concerns with the deputy police commissioner and was also speaking to the Prime Minister’s Office about potential federal assistance.

“There’s an attitude of lawlessness here,” she said.

“We can’t keep ignoring that people feel unsafe, and this level of threatening staff … this has got to stop.”

Mr Murphy told the media after the riots that NT Police had enough officers to deal with everything, despite later calling in reinforcements from South Australia.