ABOUT one in six drinkers taken into custody by ACT Policing in the past financial year come from NSW.
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Each weekend, droves of NSW revellers cross the border to party at ACT night spots.
While most interstate revellers behave, ACT Policing figures reveal 15.2 per cent of people taken into custody for intoxication in 2010-11 live in NSW.
The number is up from 13.7 per cent the year before and equals the five-year high set in 2008-09.
But while the percentage has risen, the number of visiting drinkers detained actually dropped in the past five years.
ACT Policing nabbed 1104 people for intoxication in 2010-11 - 168 of whom were from NSW.
While in 2006-07, 1642 people were taken into custody for intoxication - 246 from NSW.
The figures remain steady for admissions at the Sobering-up Shelter. Centre manager Anne Kirwan said NSW drunks made up between 10 and 20 per cent of clients.
Ms Kirwan said the shelter dealt with ''typical binge-drinking Australian men'', irrespective of their home state.
''Young men between 18 to 24 make up more than half our client group,'' Ms Kirwan said.
''They're doing what's part of our culture.''
While border-hopping partygoers represent a moderate number of problem drunks in Canberra, NSW's influence drops when applied across the crime spectrum.
Police statistics show NSW residents represent only 6.7 per cent of people apprehended and charged in the ACT.
ACT Policing North District Superintendent Mick Calatzis said the figures matched other border areas, such as Tweed Heads-Gold Coast and Albury-Wodonga.
Superintendent Calatzis said extradition and authority arrangements avoided most potential cross-border issues.
''We work really closely with NSW police and most ACT Police are sworn as special constables in NSW and vice versa,'' Superintendent Calatzis said.
''We're very practical about it, we look at the priority of offence ... [so] geography isn't an issue for us, we manage it well.
''We're part of the criminal justice system, we're not the criminal justice system.''