Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Acting Assistant Commissioner Greater Darwin Road Safety and Support Hege Burns says vehicle damage in Malak recently perpetrated by mostly 6 to 12 year old children

Transcript

Acting Assistant Commissioner Greater Darwin Road Safety and Support Hege Burns says vehicle damage in Malak recently perpetrated by mostly 6 to 12 year old children · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, I'm sure that a lot of you listening will
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  Speaker 1: be as concerned as I've been over the last few
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  Speaker 1: days of hearing about some of these terrible assaults on
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory police. This week, we also know that there
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  Speaker 1: was paramedic who was spat on over the weekend, and
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  Speaker 1: then on the weekend, an eighteen year old man was
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  Speaker 1: charged after he allegedly assaulted five police officers during an
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  Speaker 1: arrest on Saturday. We also had a situation a bit
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the week I believe it was on Monday,
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  Speaker 1: where a nineteen year old man who was wanted in
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  Speaker 1: relation to an unlawful entry was located at a home
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  Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. Now officers were arresting the man when
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  Speaker 1: it's alleged that a sixteen year old female who was
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  Speaker 1: inside that property attempted to intervene and physically assaulted the
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  Speaker 1: two police officers, including allegedly pushing one of those officers
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  Speaker 1: to the ground and ripping a clump of hair from
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  Speaker 1: her head. Now joining me in the studio right now
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  Speaker 1: is the acting Assistant Commissioner of the Greater Darwin Region
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  Speaker 1: and Road Safety Road Safety Support Hagar Burns. Good morning
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  Speaker 1: to you, Hagar, Good morning, Katie, thanks so much for
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  Speaker 1: your time this morning. Now, these police assaults seem to
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  Speaker 1: be occurring all too often at the moment. How are
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  Speaker 1: territory police officers feeling after hearing or after being involved
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  Speaker 1: in incidents.
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  Speaker 2: Like this, Yes, Katie, assaulting anyone is unacceptable. Police officers
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  Speaker 2: go to work and when they're doing their duties, they
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  Speaker 2: get attacked, spat on, kicked, punched, bitten And as we
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  Speaker 2: just saw in our Springs we had a police officer
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  Speaker 2: I had a clump of hair ripped out of her scalp.
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  Speaker 2: And this type of offending is just absolutely deplorable. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we go to work. Police officer go to work, they
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  Speaker 2: do their job wherever that might take them that day,
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  Speaker 2: and then they want to come home safe and uninjured.
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  Speaker 2: And it does take a toll, you know, it affects
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  Speaker 2: the members, efects colleagues, friends, family, and the community as
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  Speaker 2: a whole.
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  Speaker 1: Look are we seeing an escalation in some of these
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  Speaker 1: in some of these incidents towards police at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there has obviously recently just been a spike and
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  Speaker 2: we just have to see how how if this is
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  Speaker 2: a trend that's continuing. But like I said, we all
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  Speaker 2: have to call out violent behavior. That's not just to police,
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  Speaker 2: it's to first responders, frontline workers. We're not, as Assistant
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  Speaker 2: Commissioner Martin Dole and Alice Springs said earlier on, we're
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  Speaker 2: not punching bags.
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  Speaker 3: No, you're certainly not.
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  Speaker 1: And you're out there going to, you know, to different
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  Speaker 1: incidents where the public have called you out to because
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  Speaker 1: they feel that, you know, in some ways safety is
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  Speaker 1: compromised or something's happened where they need your assistance. So
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  Speaker 1: then to see this kind of thing happening, I've got
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  Speaker 1: to say, it must make it difficult.
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  Speaker 3: Sometimes to go out there and do your jobs.
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  Speaker 2: Look, policing is dangerous at times. We go to critical
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  Speaker 2: incidences and we do come across violent people, and like
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  Speaker 2: I said, it does take a toll. We get injured.
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  Speaker 2: We have great health and welfare services, but at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, it does take a toll on
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  Speaker 2: a police officer and the membership as a whole.
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  Speaker 1: I know that you said there is a spike at
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  Speaker 1: the moment. Are we seeing this happen more often than
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  Speaker 1: what we have at previous times?
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  Speaker 2: Like I said, we've had a recent spike, so I
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  Speaker 2: think it's difficult right now to make that assumption that
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  Speaker 2: now this is the trend we just wanted to stop.
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  Speaker 2: We want that violent behavior to stop. We want friends
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  Speaker 2: and families of people who see those sort of things
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  Speaker 2: to call it out as well. I mean, police do
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  Speaker 2: go to a job to assist someone who needs help.
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  Speaker 2: We don't need someone else coming in and then assaulting
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  Speaker 2: a police officer.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you said as well, it's not just
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  Speaker 1: the police at the moment. We caught up with Saint
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  Speaker 1: John's earlier in the week and they'd said over the
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  Speaker 1: weekend that one of the paramedics.
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  Speaker 3: On you know lock I thank goodness me.
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  Speaker 1: They're going out there in some cases doing life saving
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  Speaker 1: work in terms of that first aid and helping people
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  Speaker 1: when they're at their lowest, and to be spat on
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  Speaker 1: is quite unbelievable.
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  Speaker 2: It's disgusting, absolutely disgusting, and anyone in the frontline services,
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  Speaker 2: first responders that they need to be respected for the
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  Speaker 2: work they do and for the assistance they given.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I know that we have seen some significant issues
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  Speaker 1: around the top end of late I think it's in
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  Speaker 1: Alice Springs and other locations as well, but I'll focus
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  Speaker 1: on the top end for right now with that public
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  Speaker 1: drinking and that and really are the bad behavior and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes criminal behavior that we're seeing associated with that. We
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  Speaker 1: have spoken on a few occasions to Travis Worst, Assistant
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner Travis Worst about this as well and about the
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  Speaker 1: high volume of people in from communities right now. Hagar,
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  Speaker 1: are we seeing any movement in this space in terms
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  Speaker 1: of getting any better?
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  Speaker 2: I believe that the stats that we've got currently, we
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  Speaker 2: still have a high number of persons community members who
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  Speaker 2: are now choosing to live in and around Darwin, including
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  Speaker 2: rough sleepers as well. So we do see and it
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  Speaker 2: is noticeable. Talking to Larichia Nation, they have also noticed
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  Speaker 2: that the high volumes, and it's been high for a
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  Speaker 2: while now. They've in the month of March they returned
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  Speaker 2: four hundred and forty five persons back to community. But
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  Speaker 2: some of the reasons they're hearing of why the community
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  Speaker 2: members choose to come into Darwin range from COVID still
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  Speaker 2: so afraid that they're going to get locked out and
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  Speaker 2: not be able to move, access to alcohol, and some
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  Speaker 2: other community issues. For example, if there's some unrest that
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  Speaker 2: they will then choose to leave their community and then
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  Speaker 2: stay in and around.
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  Speaker 1: And we know that it is really like a whole
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  Speaker 1: of community approach or a whole of government approach in
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  Speaker 1: the sense that there's plenty of other programs like you've
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  Speaker 1: just touched on obviously Laraki Nation.
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  Speaker 3: What are the.
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  Speaker 1: Police doing at the moment in terms of some of
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  Speaker 1: that real response to what is happening on the street
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So we're engaging businesses, we're working with territory, how families, housing,
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  Speaker 2: and communities, so really starting to address some of the issues.
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  Speaker 2: One of them I just spoke about is return to country,
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  Speaker 2: but also finding out the causes of it. And I
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  Speaker 2: think the predominant one is that access staying away, coming
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  Speaker 2: into an area where there's access to alcohol. So working
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  Speaker 2: with the community members of how do we get them
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  Speaker 2: back to their communities where we're targeting.
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  Speaker 1: And I know I was speaking to business owners in
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  Speaker 1: Perrap over the weekend. I've also heard from business owners
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  Speaker 1: in Nightcliff right now that they are hot spots. Is
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  Speaker 1: that something that you're seeing, Yes.
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  Speaker 2: And we're working We're talking to the business owners around
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  Speaker 2: Prap and Nightcliff. One of the things I would ask
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  Speaker 2: everyone to do is that when they do see anti
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  Speaker 2: social behavior, drunkenness, domestic violence incidences, call one three one
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  Speaker 2: triple four and report it. We do see incidences and
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  Speaker 2: know of incidents where it gets reported on through Facebook,
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  Speaker 2: for example. That's something that we won't be seeing necessarily,
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  Speaker 2: so they might be feeling like they're reporting it, but
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  Speaker 2: they need to report that into our communications center so
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  Speaker 2: we know of it. We can then find out where
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  Speaker 2: it is and we can also then respond Haigen.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that has been raised with me
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  Speaker 1: as well is that in some instances, people are calling
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  Speaker 1: that one three one triple four number, but it's taking
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  Speaker 1: a very long time for them to either be answered
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  Speaker 1: or to see the police and to have them out
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  Speaker 1: there responding.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, we are aware of some of the time delays
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  Speaker 2: at certain times that wouldn't be across the twenty four
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  Speaker 2: hour period, but really we're just still asking patients stay
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  Speaker 2: on the line and report it through. If you can
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  Speaker 2: report it through our online pardon me online as well,
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  Speaker 2: please do that as well. But if you need police
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  Speaker 2: assistance one three one, triple four and if it's an
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  Speaker 2: emergency triple zero, I can. I just asked that that
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  Speaker 2: just be a little bit patient while we're working through
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  Speaker 2: some of the staffing currently.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know that. Again.
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  Speaker 1: Travis Wurst had said when we spoke to him last
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  Speaker 1: week that there's about a twenty percent increase in the
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  Speaker 1: number of all the volume of calls coming through the
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  Speaker 1: call center. Is that still the case at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that. I don't think we've got an
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  Speaker 2: updated but it's not sitting at that twenty twenty two
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  Speaker 2: percent call volume from last year.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this time last which I guess does show you
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  Speaker 1: that there is you know, there is a lot happening
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  Speaker 1: out there at the moment that the community is concerned
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  Speaker 1: about that they're calling the police about.
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  Speaker 2: Yea, yeah, absolutely, and they need to continue doing that,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what we ask.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to ask as well.
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  Speaker 1: I know yesterday we had a listener call through and
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  Speaker 1: tell us about he lives in Malac and tell us
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  Speaker 1: about a number of vehicles in Malac having their windows
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  Speaker 1: smashed and not being you know, not being an isolated thing.
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  Speaker 1: He said there were about ten odd cars. That's obviously
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  Speaker 1: something that the police are looking into.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so I can form everyone we've sadly we had
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  Speaker 2: thirty cars in total. So that was over the weekend
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  Speaker 2: and then on the Tuesday, we're possibly around that ten
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  Speaker 2: an additional ten, so thirty in total. So through reviewing CCTV,
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  Speaker 2: we've identified a group of youths between the ages of
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  Speaker 2: six years old and twelve years old. So police currently
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  Speaker 2: are working with the families of the children, but investigations
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  Speaker 2: are still continuing. We're also looking at some of the options,
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  Speaker 2: for example, putting up some mobile CCTVs as long as
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  Speaker 2: we can find in an appropriate public area.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so sorry, so just repeat that. So through that CCTV,
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  Speaker 1: who did you identify?
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  Speaker 2: So children made the group of children who did majority
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  Speaker 2: of the yeah, smashing, the age between six and.
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  Speaker 3: Twelve, six and twelve.
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  Speaker 1: Goodness me that I don't even know what the police
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  Speaker 1: can do about that, because what do you do?
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  Speaker 3: You pick them up and take them home.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we take them home, we talk to their
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  Speaker 2: families and then obviously if there was any other referrals
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  Speaker 2: we need to do at the same time. So those
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  Speaker 2: are the avenues of investigation we're currently doing. But we're
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  Speaker 2: hoping to work with the families of these children and
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  Speaker 2: get them on the right track again.
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  Speaker 1: Decisions, I mean, that must be incredibly frustrating for everybody involved,
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  Speaker 1: for the victims, but also for the police as well,
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  Speaker 1: talking about kids, you know, like, I've got kids that
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  Speaker 1: are that age.
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  Speaker 3: It's unbelievable that they're out on the streets doing that.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm sure there was the younger following the older
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  Speaker 2: kids and made a very bad decision that day. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: So hopefully a lot of those kids haven't come to
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  Speaker 2: police attention before. So we're hoping that we can get
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  Speaker 2: them back on track and with some assistance from territory
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  Speaker 2: families for example, if we need to. So there will
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  Speaker 2: be referrals.
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  Speaker 1: Yep, I can't, but yeah, by the sounds of it,
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  Speaker 1: it was a pretty bad weekend. Thirty cars over the
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  Speaker 1: weekend and then ten in one night. Gee, it's frustrating.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, it would be, and it would be so
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  Speaker 2: frustrating for all the community in and around the lag
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  Speaker 2: and then hearing that very very frustrating.
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  Speaker 1: And so you did say that there will be additional
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  Speaker 1: did you say there'll be additional CCTV in the area
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  Speaker 1: then to keep an eye on things.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So I believe the CCTV that was reviewed would
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  Speaker 2: most likely be in and around the area of private residence.
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  Speaker 2: And so now we're going to be looking at where
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  Speaker 2: can we put our mobile CCTV unit, remembering that it
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  Speaker 2: needs to be in an area that's well lit, but
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  Speaker 2: also in a public area.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, hager Burns, we really appreciate your time this morning,
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  Speaker 1: and I know that it is a busy time for
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  Speaker 1: the Territory Police. I think it's it is important that
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  Speaker 1: we get to hear from you regularly, from the police
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  Speaker 1: regularly as that work is underway. So we really appreciate
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  Speaker 1: you coming into the studio on having a chat with
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  Speaker 1: us this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
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  Speaker 3: That is the acting.
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  Speaker 1: Assistant Commissioner there for the greater Darwin and Road Safety
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  Speaker 1: and support.
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  Speaker 3: Hagar birrd