Dunedin vendors of alcohol can expect more covert under-age purchasing stings over the next year.
The Dunedin Alcohol Partnership and ACC are behind the project, in which police and council staff will carry out at least one sting a week for 52 weeks in the greater Dunedin area, including places such as Middlemarch, Port Chalmers and Mosgiel.
Previously, Dunedin police have done six stings a year at most.
A non-sworn police staff member has been appointed to work on the project 10 hours a week, organising operations in collaboration with the Dunedin City Council, collating paperwork and educating staff and the hospitality industry.
The Dunedin Alcohol Partnership involves the police, Public Health South and the district licensing agency.
Dunedin police liquor licensing officer Constable Neil Kettings said ACC was involved because of its interest in injury-prevention projects.
The new regime should be running "hopefully, within a month".
The project, in which someone would be employed to organise controlled purchase operations, might be a first for New Zealand, he said.
The operations are run using an undercover volunteer. Sales of alcohol to people aged under 18 result in applications for suspension of the outlet's liquor licence or, in some cases, cancellation.
Dunedin did not have a particular problem with under-age alcohol sales, but it was a university town and many 17-year-olds looked 18, Const Kettings said.
Each year, police detected hundreds of false identification documents used by people trying to get past salespeople and bouncers.
Student haunts would not be specifically targeted. Outlets would be visited at random.
More operations were a good idea, he said.
"It is one method the police have of policing sales to under-age drinkers and we should use it."
He hoped the knowledge there would be more operations would help to improve sales behaviour.
Council liquor licensing inspector Tony Mole said the regular operations would also provide more opportunities to check premises.
Public Health South health promotion adviser Barbara Bennett said making sure staff in licensed premises were asking for identification was another way of keeping the city's young people from experiencing the harm alcohol could do.
