The members of the patrol use negotiation rather than confrontation and have earned the respect of offenders as well as law enforcement agencies. Patrol members are sensitive to situations and groups which have the potential for violence or other crime, and seek to defuse aggression by friendly advice and assistance. Patrols regularly convey people home or to appropriate shelters or even to hospital if necessary. They endeavour to assist drunken people and provide follow-up assistance in an attempt to break the alcoholic cycle. Children are a particular concern to the Patrol and attempts regularly are made to provide them with transport and accommodation.
Moves are also under way to set up a supervised recreation area for young people.
By December 1992 the police noted a considerable reduction in criminal damage and street disorder within the Central Business District since the introduction of the Night Patrol. The Tangentyere Night Patrol now has a protocol agreement with the Northern Territory police and the Alice Springs DASA Sobering-up Centre allowing the Patrol to convey persons requiring protective custody due to intoxication to the shelter for care. The Patrol uses and strengthens Aboriginal mechanisms for social control, thereby ensuring that traditional methods are afforded a key role in the control of anti-social behaviour, minor criminal infractions and potentially serious criminal incidents in the Aboriginal community. Police report that since the introduction of the night patrols criminal damage and street disorder within the Central Business District had been considerably reduced. As with other such community initiatives, the Tangentyere Night Patrol is a positive strategy towards the diversion of Aboriginal people away from the formal criminal justice system and addressing the disproportionate rate of detention of members of the Aboriginal community.