Senior Sergeant Ian Campion told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend the number of drink-drive prosecutions overall was declining but the age group which stood out was the 15 to 19-year-olds.
In 2008, they represented 27.2 per cent of all prosecutions, whereas by 2011 that figure had dropped to 20.4 per cent. The news has been even better in 2012 as, by June 13, the youngest drivers had fallen still further and represented 17.7 per cent of overall prosecutions.
"These figures stand out for me. I applaud them and challenge them to continue that reduction and get it even lower," said Mr Campion.
"It's a really significant shift and a very positive one. Too often we blame young people for all the problems on the roads and, from my perspective, that age group is leading the way in terms of the reduction in drink driving numbers. The year-to-date figures for 2012 are again showing a drop in the representation of that youngest age group. I would like to think that it indicates young people are taking a more responsible approach."
Mr Campion believed a number of factors had triggered the decline.
"The Western Bay of Plenty established a Traffic Alcohol Group a number of years ago and the extra staffing and resources available now has made an impact. The Anti-Drink Drive & Drug Expo, which has targeted all Year 11 students in the Western Bay of Plenty area, has also been a great success. And then there is the legislation implementing a zero-alcohol level for under 20s."
Mr Campion said it was a particularly important age group to target, as it represented young people at the beginning of their driving lives.
Wendy Nicholls, operations manager at the Te Aranui Youth Trust, which works with the police on youth programmes such as the Bluelight Anti-Drink Drive & Drug Expo, said: "It's been running for the last four years and came out of the drink drive education weekends, which were run for the youth offenders programme."
"They were held on a quarterly basis and we used to get 20-30 youth offenders, under 17s, for each weekend. The programme was always full and actually had a waiting list."
The most effective portions of this weekend programme were merged with similar sessions run for secondary schools and the week-long expo was created.
This pre-emptive rather than reactive approach was so successful that within six months of running the 2009 event there were not enough youth offenders to fill the weekend programmes.
"We see around 2000 to 2500 students each year," said Mrs Nicholls. "We target it at Year 11s, so 15 year olds, as that's the last full year that everyone completes before becoming drivers.
"They listen to speakers who have real stories, a real victim and real offender. We tell them what happens when people drink and drive, we have fire crews giving crashed car displays, the ambulance crew giving medical demonstrations on dummies of crash scene injuries, we even have a funeral director who sets up a coffin."
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges said it was "great to see the falling numbers" and he believed the zero alcohol level was partly responsible.
"Like Senior Sergeant Campion, I encourage young drivers to keep the trend going. While it's too early to evaluate the zero alcohol level for young drivers I would expect that it's having a significant impact by helping to make young people stop and think before they drink and drive."
Mr Bridges noted other changes such as raising the driving age to 16, strengthening the restricted licence test to encourage more practice, and increased levels of education and advertising aimed at young people.
Kate McKay, head of the Students Against Driving Drunk committee at Te Puke High School, said she believed greater awareness was partly responsible for the falling numbers of young drink driver prosecutions.
This awareness included television advertisements featuring younger people being easier to connect with, and events such as the Anti-Drink Drive & Drug Expo.
"One thing which had a really powerful impact on me was a speaker at the expo who had actually killed someone after driving drunk," said the 17-year-old.