The high number of miscreants ending up in cells concerned the police and crime commissioner when he spent a night patrolling Luton town centre with police on Friday.
Commissioner Olly Martins joined police officers from midnight until 4am to see the night-time economy of pubs and clubs in the town centre.
He now plans to look at ways in which police resources can be recalibrated.
Mr Martins said: “I am concerned that the immense efforts and resources that go into policing night-time weekends is not necessarily of great benefit to the majority of people. I was told this was a relatively quiet night, yet the cells were almost full by the time I left.”
Homelessness will also be a priority for Mr Martins after he met people sleeping rough and vowed to “put a stop to the revolving door of homelessness”.
He praised street pastors for their efforts but said they can’t work miracles.
Mr Martins said: “Seeing the problems at first hand underlined for me that the key to turning around this situation of repeating patterns is early intervention by partnership working.
“I shall be discussing with partner agencies how we can tackle this revolving door of homelessness which so often seems to occur when the right help is not available from the outset.”