LOW fitness levels and high rates of alcohol consumption and smoking among police officers are affecting work performance and placing officers' lives in jeopardy, a study of high-risk lifestyle behaviours among NSW police has found.

The survey of 852 NSW police officers – released publicly for the first time yesterday at the Australian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs conference – found 48 per cent of policemen and 40 per cent of policewomen consumed alcohol excessively, with 18 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women drinking regularly at hazardous or harmful levels.

The latest figures – while representing a decline on a previous study of police alcohol consumption – are considerably higher than for the rest of the population, with recent Australian Bureau of Statistics data showing a total 10.5 per cent of men and 7 per cent of women drink excessively.

Excessive alcohol consumption was one of the main problems identified by the Wood Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service, while official reports have cited a lack of fitness among police as a key concern.

Lead researcher Robyn Richmond, from the University of NSW School of Community Medicine, said the problem was caused by the stressful nature of police work and by a culture that encouraged officers to attend informal debriefings over drinks at the end of their shifts.

She said similar results were likely in other States.

Associate Professor Richmond said high levels of alcohol consumption could have serious consequences for police, including causing slower reaction times – which increased the risk of injury from road crashes and firearms – higher rates of absenteeism and impaired work performance.

Rates of alcoholic liver disease deaths among police were twice those of the general population, she said.

Manager of the NSW Police Service's healthy lifestyles branch, Gary Jackel, said fitness and alcohol consumption findings had been disturbing and the service had instituted change to the culture since the royal commission.

Officers were offered fitness assessments, while 15 officers had returned positive breath tests from the 8000 screened in random tests conducted since September last year.

Associate Professor Richmond said the rates of alcohol and cigarettes consumption among police officers raised serious doubts about the appropriateness of police as role models for young people.

The study found excessive drinking was more prevalent among younger police, aged 18 to 39 years, although 8 per cent of male officers and 15 per cent of female officers said they did not drink alcohol at all.

More than one-quarter of male officers and one-third of female police had smoked in the previous three months.