HRM drinks too much and Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley says he has the assault statistics to prove it.

He told the municipality’s police commission on Monday there’s way too much easy access to liquor in this town. Many people sit at home and drink heavily before going out late to the bar and pounding drinks until 3 a.m.

“If I could take the alcohol out of this, I could plummet the number of assaults in HRM,” he said.

Beazley added that several of the 3,202 assaults last year involved people getting drunk and going home to beat a family member.

The access, hours the bars are open and the density of liquor establishments downtown combine to cause real problems.

“Why do we need that many bars in that one area of the community that require so many resources to police it?”

Coun. Sue Uteck, who is on the police commission, said hold on a minute ‘ liquor stores are open late, too.

“If you’re going to make a move on the bars, you’ll have to make a move at the province at the same time,” she said, in reference to Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. outlets.

Later in the meeting, items on the police budget that were previously on the chopping block ‘ horses, bikes, lake patrol, the East End Community Office and Crime Stoppers funding ‘ were saved.

The commission managed to firm up other sources of funding including money from the UN to pay for HRP officers on foreign assignments.