On this day in 1984, the police in Canberra had revised their strategy to catch drunk drivers throughout the holiday season.
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Canberra's drunk drivers may have lacked judgment regarding safe driving habits, but this lack of judgment did not seem to reflect in their abilities to predict where the police were likely to set up random breath tests around the city.
Police had a tendency to set up breath testing on arterial streets, so the devious drivers would go to great lengths and distances to avoid them.
The drivers would take back streets and minor roads, using their knowledge of the main streets where police would usually set up breath tests to avoid being stopped.
A police officer from Sydney said that his team, which would usually find two positive test results a weekend, changed their breath-testing locations to target side streets near clubs and bars, and immediately recorded a major increase in positive tests, finding 67 cases of drink driving.
With testing sites often being the same, and motorists often flashing their fellow road users to alert them of the site, police were getting fed up with the task.
"For police on the road, random breath testing is a soul-destroying job", one officer said.
Police were to increase the number of breath testing sites, and target more minor streets as well as the obvious main ones, so the drunk drivers had no alternative route to avoid being tested.
