No major incidents at SA NYE celebrations

New crowd control powers for South Australian police have been hailed a success with no major incidents at New Year's Eve celebrations.

Less than 100 people were arrested across SA with police describing revellers as generally well behaved.

Thousands gathered at Adelaide's two major events at Elder Park and at seaside Glenelg, which were both Declared Public Precincts on the night, giving police new and wider powers to search and exclude.

They said 24 people were ordered to leave the Elder Park zone and 10 were removed from Glenelg.

"That legislation helps us enormously," assistant police commissioner Bronwyn Killmier said.

"It makes it a lot easier with those powers to control the scene and control the area before things get out of hand."

Police Minister Chris Picton said the police presence across the state was significant and thanked all emergency workers on duty during the night.

"On the whole, the feedback is that people were generally well behaved," he said.

"But there were, unfortunately, some people who didn't behave well and they've been dealt with by police appropriately and some of them spent the night seeing in the new year at the city watchhouse."

The 96 arrests in SA this year, mostly for behavioural offences, compared to 140 during last year's celebrations.

Police also breath-tested more than 7400 motorists, with 54 found to be over the limit, and conducted 270 drug tests with 25 positive results.