New internal figures from Northern Territory police show a significant drop in crime in Alice Springs since the re-introduction of alcohol restrictions but experts say they are not giving the full picture.

In late January, a suite of immediate measures restricting alcohol sales was launched, including trialling takeaway alcohol-free days on Monday and Tuesday and limiting trading hours to 3-7pm on other days, excluding Saturdays.

A month on, new data shows break-ins are down 45 per cent and there has been a 30 per cent decrease in domestic violence and a 36 per cent decrease in youth disturbances. 

A leaked NT Police document has revealed the force is recommending additional restrictions to the sale of liquor in Alice Springs, including further restricting bottle shop opening hours and introducing volume limits for customers.

The briefing document, signed off by Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy, shows current measures targeting an uptick in crime and anti-social behaviour in the central Australian town are having a positive impact on the community.

Speaking to Sky News, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says there has been a reduction in incidents across the community since the bans came into effect. 

"There is no doubt that our antisocial behaviour in our family and domestic violence and assaults have reduced markedly — the statistics are very clear with that," he said.

"There's a whole lot of other indicators here that can clearly show that there's been a reduction of harm in the community."

Experts question 'clumsily collected' data

Experts are concerned the data misrepresents the effectiveness of alcohol bans in the area and does not account for usual fluctuations in crime. 

Domestic violence researcher and Alice Springs resident Dr Chay Brown has cautioned against reading too much into figures from such a short time period. 

"We tend in our spring to have a spike in crime that occurs in December in January in line with the school holidays. 

"In the data period that they're referring to is when kids have gone back to school, and there are a number of other interventions at play."

Dr Brown is concerned that the figures could be interpreted as alcohol bans being an effective way to address entrenched problems and used to support further bans.

"In the Northern Territory, we've had the strictest alcohol restrictions, some of the strictest in the entire world for the previous 15 years. 

"Throughout those 15 years, domestic violence and crime has continued to trend up, it has been trending up for more than five years. 

"The idea that alcohol restrictions that have been in place for less than a month could magically solve that problem is absurd," Dr Brown said.