Cardiff Method Paves Way for Better Policies

Nathaniel Mansfield 19/03/201618/03/2016

An award winning anti-crime model is being introduced in Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra. The innovative model aims to revolutionize the way alcohol related incidents are avoided & could become a viable alternative to Australia’s draconian lockout laws. The policy is based on a Welsh professor’s ‘Cardiff Model’ strategy & will utilize emergency room data to help authorities pin point problematic areas. The goal of the initiative is to reduce crime & alcohol related injuries. Now that the government is being faced with the ineffectiveness of the lockout laws, this new strategy is being viewed as a fresh alternative.

Cardiff Method Aims to Reinvent How We Fight Crime

“Lockout laws don’t have a strong evidentiary basis for success, whereas last drinks policies have a very strong evidentiary basis for their effectiveness. By implementing last drinks policies, less stress and dependency is placed on police and emergency departments later in the night.” Said Professor Peter Miller.

Cardiff Method 2 — The people are fed up with the government’s backwards public policies.

The Cardiff Model is being spearheaded in Australia by the Deakin University & will be overseen by Professor Peter Miller. The model’s founder Professor Shepard won the Stockholm Prize for Criminology in 2008 for its wild success. Before he won it had already been implemented in Cardiff in 2002 & produced impressive results. Within 5 years there was a 30% drop in aggravated assaults & a 40% reduction in hospital admissions for alcohol related shenanigans. Now that they have received a whopping $1.4 million grant from the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) they are ready to go full throttle on implementing this strategy in Australia.

The new anti-crime model aims to fine tune the use of emergency department data to aide authorities in reducing crime. They claim that their data collection is vastly superior to the shaky data currently being used by the NSW government to justify their outrageous lockout laws. Deakin School of Psychology Professor Peter Miller is hoping to use improved data collection to reinvent the way public policies are created.

Cardiff Method 3 — Thousands protest irresponsible government policies.

“Data sharing is about the quality of data. Currently, [hospital] data doesn’t capture all incidences of alcohol-related intoxication – our model is more comprehensive, looking at the sources of harm and how much is consumed on the night of admission to the emergency department. So we’ll look at all alcohol-related attendance to emergency departments, including intoxication, but also things like liver cancers. Because we’re looking at people’s consumption on the day, the model is designed to give accurate sources of alcohol-related behavior and injury in the community. Having the more comprehensive data will better inform public policy.”

Even though this new strategy won’t completely cure Australia’s problems, it does pave the way to ending our horrendous lockout laws. Now that the futility of abolishing nightlife has been scientifically proven, a change in public policy is necessary. We are now facing the dawn of change. It will be interesting to see what effects this policy has on Sydney, Canberra & Melbourne in 5 years. Hopefully the improved data collection will provide enough results to render the lockout laws unnecessary. As long as the Cardiff model improves the logic behind public policy that should be a given.