Irresponsible and excessive consumption of alcohol and the associated problems it carries in its wake have become one of the key concerns for central government in terms of community safety, especially in the night-time economy. In response to the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England (Department of Health 2007), the Department of Health (DoH) has announced a series of measures of which one is to pilot screening and intervention for alcohol use in a variety of locations, including criminal justice settings. This article reports on the findings of a project that pre-empts the DoH initiatives, thus providing the opening comments in what will be sure to be a debate about a new strategic and evidence-based approach to dealing with alcohol-related crime and disorder. The article provides data and discussions on the Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) project that screened 3,900 detainees in a busy custody suite in the south of England during the period March 2007 to March 2008. Tables and references (Published Abstract)