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Senior Sergeant Doug Incoll was commenting on Wednesday after Alpine Council was lashed for the move by hotel, motel, cafe and taxi operators at its meeting on Tuesday night.
Star Hotel licensee Sally Broderick and Alpine Hotel duty manager Dylan Devitt said the end to street drinking would place extra pressure on their operations as patrons would require greater monitoring.
Cab driver Vicki McCrohan said not being able to drink over a wide area would create tension.
"You're going to cause trouble, you've got massive amounts of people in one spot," she said.
John Bright Motor Inn host Lynne Maunder said the decision had already hurt.
"We've got a couple of families that have already cancelled their booking, they don't turn up drunk they go down and sit there with their children, who are about 10 years old and they have a family picnic, they have a couple of glasses of wine and they thoroughly enjoy their day," she said.
"You're going to penalise all these families that want to have a nice social outing."
But Senior Sergeant Incoll told The Border Mail he believed those attracted by drinking would depart and be replaced by families.
"There were concerns for a couple of years but now it's just full of families," Senior Sergeant Incoll said.
Alpine mayor Ron Janas shared his former police colleague's optimism that the move would change the demographic.
"Council would like to promote this as a family friendly event and we've had evidence presented to us of people not prepared to go as a family, particularly with young females," he told The Border Mail on Wednesday.
Under the change those possessing or consuming alcohol in the street in Bright on the rod weekend in November could receive $200 fines.