An evaluation of the 2023 reform, made public on Friday, applauded the efforts of police to maintain a health-led approach since the changes were introduced.
The report by Monash University evaluated the reform's impacts by speaking to stakeholders including community members, police and venue owners.
Arrests for secondary offences during intoxication-related events occurred in only five per cent of matters overall, the report found, however Aboriginal people remained twice as likely to be arrested than the general population.
First Nations and other vulnerable groups have historically suffered most from a policy of locking people up due to public drunkenness, explained report lead author and Palawa woman Kyllie Cripps.
"Youth have also been impacted by this, so have our newly arrived refugees and our migrant populations," Professor Cripps told AAP.
"So too have people with disabilities, and people that also experience domestic and family violence."
Part of the motivation for decriminalising public drunkenness stemmed from an inquest into the 2017 death of Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day.
Ms Day was arrested for being drunk in a public place after falling asleep on a train and died after hitting her head in a concrete cell at Castlemaine Police Station.
"For decades, First Nations communities have carried the disproportionate burden of over-policing and criminalisation, where public drunkenness laws have led to devastating harms and deaths in custody," Prof Cripps said.
"The reforms not only recognise these harms but are also a direct response to the decades of advocacy by Aboriginal leaders, families and organisations calling for a fundamentally different approach."
The new approach includes gaining the consent of individuals to be taken to hospital if they are a health risk, or to a sobering-up facility.
Report co-author Narelle Warren said decriminalisation has successfully removed police cells as a default response to public intoxication.
"To ensure these reforms are sustainable, we must consolidate the gains achieved and address critical service gaps, and connect people directly to long-term services like housing, mental health support and alcohol treatment," Prof Warren said.
The evaluation report makes 25 recommendations to future-proof and improve the the reform, including establishing a dedicated, independent oversight body to monitor police discretion and receive public complaints.
A 20-bed sobering-up facility at Collingwood in Melbourne's inner north will close in mid-2027 as part of a redesign of the state's public intoxication services.
It will be replaced with local outreach options aimed supporting people to get home or connecting them with family and friends.
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