Breath testing at blue lights

Jessica Benton
GEELONG police are breath-testing teenagers at under-18 events in the city to crack down on underage drinking and unruly behaviour.
Leading Senior Constable and Blue Light Disco treasurer Tony Beard said police were testing teenagers they suspected of being under the influence of alcohol while they waited to enter the discos.
Snr Const Beard said police would run the breath tests “periodically” at the events during the summer school holidays.
Misbehaviour prompted Geelong police to cancel Blue Lights for more than a year before reintroducing the popular dance nights last summer.
“We had a little bit of trouble a few years back when kids were drinking prior to the events and causing trouble when they got inside, so now we warn the kids of the testing while they line up,” Snr Const Beard said.
Police usually issued a warning of breath tests when they believed youths waiting to enter the Blue Lights had been drinking, he said.
“The call out filters out the ones who have been drinking and scares them off.”
Snr Const Beard considered the use of breath testing at Blue Lights a “deterrent” rather than a tool to bust under-age drinkers.
“We don’t use it as an official thing. It’s really an indication for us to work with the parents and more of a service to assist parents down the track,” Snr Const Beard said.
“If the kids are tested positive we call the parents and it becomes their responsibility.”
Last week’s Blue Light attracted about 400 teenagers to Geelong’s Home House nightclub.
Snr Const Beard said none of the Home House crowd tested positive for alcohol consumption.
However, tests at a Blue Light the previous week detected alcohol on the breath of 10 youths.