Security at licensed premises

​​The Liquor Licensing Act imposes a range of obligations on licence holders that cannot be met without proper consideration of venue security. This is particularly so for those premises that trade late at night and for premises that provide entertainment.

Licensees have obligations under the Act to, among other things:

  • effectively control the sale and consumption of liquor on the premises;
  • ensure the responsible service of alcohol; 
  • prohibit or restrict the entry of young people; 
  • require violent, quarrelsome or disorderly people to leave the premises; and 
  • comply with any conditions on their licence or permit. 

These obligations are in addition to the general workplace safety and duty of care obligations that arise from other legislation.

Complying with these obligations will require licensees to carefully plan for their security requirements. 

Licensed premises that provide music entertainment and/or trade very late may have conditions imposed on the out-of-hours permit by the Commissioner. One common condition is for sufficient licensed crowd controllers to be provided. 

Crowd controllers

There are no hard and fast rules for determining what constitutes sufficient licensed crowd controllers as security requirements depend on a range of factors discussed below. The management of licensed premises is the responsibility of the licensee and therefore it is the licensee’s task to assess and provide for what would be sufficient security for the activities occurring on their licensed premises. Each licensed premises presents different risks and licensees are in a unique position to understand the particular issues and risks relevant to their premises. A management plan can be useful and is encouraged. 

A management plan can assist in identifying risks and developing a responsible approach to addressing them. The effective management of licensed premises plays a vital role in preventing and reducing anti-social behaviour and violence at licensed premises. 

As a general rule, firms that provide security at licensed premises would allow for two crowd controllers for the first 100 patrons and then one additional crowd controller for each additional 100 patrons or part thereof. 

Factors which may impact the number of crowd controllers 

  • the nature of the licensed premises; 
  • the entertainment being provided; 
  • the hours of trade; 
  • the target demographic of patrons of the premises; 
  • layout of the premises (e.g. number of separate areas); 
  • accessibility; 
  • numbers of patrons in the venue and subsequent mobility issues; 
  • entry and exit points; 
  • whether a cover charge is applied; 
  • whether there is queuing of patrons on the footpath; and 
  • visibility (i.e. illumination at entry points and within venue). 


Licensees should also consider 

  • establishing clearly with crowd controllers what their duties will be. (e.g. checking id’s, monitoring behaviour of patrons in the premises, monitoring patrons before entering the premises, monitoring patrons leaving the premises); 
  • ensuring that crowd controllers will be able to effectively and clearly communicate with each other together with venue staff and management; 
  • providing crowd controllers with details of any conditions imposed on the licence or permit; 
  • ensuring that crowd controllers can be easily identified; and 
  • liaising with Tasmania Police. 

​In Tasmania any person who is employed as a crowd controller must be licensed under the Security and Investigations Agents Act 2002.​ The only exception is the licensee of a licensed premises who may also undertake crowd control activities as part of their normal duties on the licensed premises. 

Application forms to become a crowd controller are available from Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading, Department of Justice.

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