ID scanners for high-risk Sydney pubs, clubs
High risk bars will be forced to install and use ID scanners by December 6 as part of a NSW government crackdown on alcohol-related violence in Sydney’s Kings Cross.
Minister for Hospitality George Souris says 35 licensed premises will be required to operate the scanners from 7pm on Fridays through to 7am on Mondays, as well as on public holidays and the preceding evening.
“The use of ID scanners, which will be linked to a central ID scanning system, will support the use of banning orders on troublemakers at high-risk Kings Cross venues to help keep the venues and precinct safe,” Mr Souris said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Failure to operate an ID scanner as required to admit patrons could result in the venue incurring a strike on each day of such failure under the Three Strikes disciplinary scheme.”
Mr Souris said all workers must undertake privacy training with penalties of up to $5500 for licensees and $2200 for staff where a person operates an ID scanner in a venue without having completed the course.
Maximum penalties of $11,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 12 months apply to licensees breaching licence conditions relating to these new requirements.
Mr Souris said “high-risk licensed venues” are defined as those licensed premises that trade after midnight and have a capacity of more than 120 patrons.
The initiative joins several new measures introduced by the NSW government to combat alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour.
These include the Three Strikes scheme, recruiting an additional 420 police officers with new move-on powers, introducing a new offence of intoxicated and disorderly, and trialling sobering up centres.