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Katie Woolf spoke with Police Commander Matt Hollamby · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio right now is the commander
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Darwin and Road Policing, Matt Holland b.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good morning, Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning, Matt. I
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  Speaker 1: know that it was a terrible weekend on the road
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: over the weekend with the death of a teenager in Wallagi.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Is there much of an update in this space.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Look, Katie, it's a tragedy. A young man has
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: lost his life and obviously his family a grieving and
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  Speaker 4: we saw that through the media and they agree for
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: the rest of their lives. So it's really really sad.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: There's been twenty five people now that have died on
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  Speaker 4: our roads in the Northern Territory compared to seventeen at
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  Speaker 4: the same time last year.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, they are numbers.
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  Speaker 4: It doesn't really take into account the tragedy of the
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: young man that's died.
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  Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that I think, you know,
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  Speaker 1: very often you sort of talk about the rate of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: death on our roads, but when somebody passes away as
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  Speaker 1: a result of a rible incident like that, it actually
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  Speaker 1: impacts so broadly the whole community. You know, even today
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the school making sure that they rally around those young
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  Speaker 1: people at that school who are going to be hurting
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  Speaker 1: for a long time.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and look, I think we all know somebody who's
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: died in a car crash. And for those people that
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  Speaker 4: have got close family members who've died in a car crash,
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  Speaker 4: they will never forget those people. And that's part of
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  Speaker 4: the tragedy of it that it's not it doesn't just
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  Speaker 4: affect one person or one family. It's right across the
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  Speaker 4: community and it's long lasting too. Well.
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  Speaker 1: Look, there has been quite a bit happening around the
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  Speaker 1: place as well in recent weeks. The last time you're
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: in the studio, you and I were talking about some
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  Speaker 1: of the issues that well, some of our business people
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  Speaker 1: were seeing in the city with young people not necessarily
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: breaking the law, but not behaving very well either. I
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  Speaker 1: know that that there was certainly some work done by
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police in an effort to really combat
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: some of this.
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  Speaker 2: Behave you can you tell us exactly what it happens.
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  Speaker 4: Last weekend, not the one just gone on last weekend,
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  Speaker 4: the one before we conducted a youth operation across Darwin
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  Speaker 4: and Casuarina and we identified. I think it was forty
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  Speaker 4: youth all up that were out and about at times
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: of the night that perhaps they shouldn't have been.
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  Speaker 3: We engage with those youths. In some cases we took
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: them home.
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  Speaker 4: And in appropriate cases we also made referrals to territory
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  Speaker 4: families and also to the Department of Education. These kids
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  Speaker 4: are the ones that aren't going to school. There are
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  Speaker 4: it's not all of them, it's just some of them.
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  Speaker 4: But there are questions that need to be asked as
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  Speaker 4: to why they aren't going to school, why they aren't
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  Speaker 4: being educated and making a better life for themselves into
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  Speaker 4: the future.
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  Speaker 2: I reckon that's a really good point.
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  Speaker 1: That's something that you had made last time you're on
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  Speaker 1: the show as well, to say that it has to
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  Speaker 1: be sort of a whole of government approach. It's got
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  Speaker 1: to be everybody working together to make sure that we're
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  Speaker 1: not in a situation where kids who shouldn't.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Be out on the street, you know.
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  Speaker 1: In the late hours of the night that were actually
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  Speaker 1: you know, working out why they're out there, stopping them
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  Speaker 1: from obviously being out there. But that's not always a
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  Speaker 1: job only for the police.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's not only a job for the government. Either.
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  Speaker 4: I mean it's you know, parents raise children, parents and guardians,
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  Speaker 4: and they have a key responsibility to raise their children
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  Speaker 4: in a proper manner. And the ones that aren't gone
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  Speaker 4: to school and are wondering the streets, they obviously need
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  Speaker 4: some help, and that's where we can intervene and provide
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  Speaker 4: some assistance.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I know last week then obviously with the lockdown,
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  Speaker 1: it probably means that things certainly quieten down a little
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  Speaker 1: bit in different ways, but there was still well. This
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: week then we have seen that there was a terrible incident.
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  Speaker 1: Actually yesterday, a sixteen year old male has been arrested
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  Speaker 1: by Strikeforce Trident yesterday afternoon. I understand because at about
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: two point fifteen in the RVO police received reports fourteen
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: year old male have been assaulted near the shopping center
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  Speaker 1: on Trai Road.
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  Speaker 2: Pretty bad assault from what I can gather.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that matters before the court.
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  Speaker 4: I won't talk too much about it, but what I
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  Speaker 4: can say is that the young man is still in hospital.
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  Speaker 3: In a not a good way.
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  Speaker 4: And so yeah, the youth that we alleged assaulted, the
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  Speaker 4: youth who's in hospital, we'll have to front the court
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  Speaker 4: and let the judicial system.
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  Speaker 2: Flow through well, I hope he's all right, that fourteen
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  Speaker 2: year old, that's terrible.
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  Speaker 4: I will say that we did actually do repeat the
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  Speaker 4: operation this weekend, Okay, Yeah, so we suspended it during
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  Speaker 4: the lockdown period and then reinitiated it over the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and did you find have we got a situation
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  Speaker 1: like over the weekend after obviously conducting those different patrols
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  Speaker 1: and working with territory families and the education department, did
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  Speaker 1: you find that on the weekend just gone, things were
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  Speaker 1: a little bit better.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: There weren't as many youth that were engaged with.
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  Speaker 4: It was kind of fortunate that unfortunate or fortunate, which
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  Speaker 4: that there was an unlawful entry in the city in
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  Speaker 4: the CBD and a person that witnessed it reported to
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  Speaker 4: the police and the police responded really quickly and.
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  Speaker 3: Caught three of the youth on.
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  Speaker 4: Saturday afternoon, and subsequent investigations showed that the incident had
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  Speaker 4: been caught on CCTV, So those three youth were.
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  Speaker 2: Dealt with. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Now, let's have a look at the crime stats, because
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  Speaker 1: obviously these come out sort of every is it every
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  Speaker 1: month or every.
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  Speaker 2: Quarter that they come out?
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  Speaker 3: It's every month, Catie.
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  Speaker 2: So every month they come out.
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  Speaker 1: I know that there is always a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: mixed bag. Firstly, taking a look at the Darwin region,
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  Speaker 1: how did you feel like, how have you found that
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  Speaker 1: things have gone. Have we seen a spike in areas
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  Speaker 1: and have we seen sort of a decrease in in
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: any area?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Look, Katie, I think the really important thing is
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  Speaker 4: that these are year on year stats and they slide
• 6:06
  Speaker 4: forward by one month, so things that happen twelve eighteen
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: months ago are still embedded in those crime stats. And
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  Speaker 4: if you look at our assaults, they there high in
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  Speaker 4: Darwen and Palmerston. But at the moment we're comparing to
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  Speaker 4: that initial lockdown period that you remember right at the
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  Speaker 4: start of COVID where Larrakia Nation did a really good
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: job of repatriating itinerants to their home communities and crime
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  Speaker 4: is very, very low. So that's what we're comparing ourselves
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  Speaker 4: with at the moment in terms of the assaults, and they.
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  Speaker 3: Are quite volatile.
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  Speaker 4: Like if you look at Palmerston, assaults have increased by
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  Speaker 4: forty nine percent over the last twelve months compared to
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  Speaker 4: the twelve months before, but if you go back two months,
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  Speaker 4: the increase of sixty percent, So it's come down by
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  Speaker 4: eleven percent in two months, so very very volatile figures
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  Speaker 4: and I think that'll keep going for another fourteen to
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  Speaker 4: fifteen months.
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  Speaker 1: Yet, So do you use the statistics because you know,
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  Speaker 1: I guess taking a look at them, like you said,
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  Speaker 1: there's sort of you know, there seems to be in
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  Speaker 1: some in some areas, massive swings one way, massive swings
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  Speaker 1: the other way, which might surprise people, you know, like
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  Speaker 1: some with the house break ins in Darwin for example,
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  Speaker 1: down forty three percent. But then you look at as
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  Speaker 1: you'd said, domestic violence related assault up fifty point four
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  Speaker 1: four percent, So they seem to be quite volatile, sort
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  Speaker 1: of swinging, you know, one direction and the other. Are
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  Speaker 1: these statistics do they actually sort of shape the way
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  Speaker 1: that you then plan for, you know, for your officers
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  Speaker 1: to be able to deal with different issues, or are
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  Speaker 1: you more forward thinking rather than looking back at the
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  Speaker 1: previous stats at.
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  Speaker 4: A higher level, We use them, but from it on
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  Speaker 4: a day to day basis, we look forward to what
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  Speaker 4: we can do to prevent crime, whether it's violent crime
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  Speaker 4: or property crime. And if you look at the recent
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  Speaker 4: youth operations, which I will say will more than likely
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: go ahead this weekend as well.
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  Speaker 3: If you look at those you know.
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  Speaker 4: The community interest and the community was very concerned about
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  Speaker 4: youth issues at that time, and that's why we implemented
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  Speaker 4: that operation. And I will say perception is really really,
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  Speaker 4: you know, perception is not always aligned with reality in
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  Speaker 4: terms of crime figures. So you know, as your note,
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  Speaker 4: property crime is way way down in Palmerston and Darwin.
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  Speaker 4: But obviously there was a significant community concern about youth
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  Speaker 4: and that's why we did the operation.
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  Speaker 2: Ake sually you do it.
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  Speaker 1: So then this weekend you're anticipating that you'll probably again
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  Speaker 1: be keeping an eye on those youth. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And as I've said.
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  Speaker 4: Before, we know that the youth ride the public buses
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  Speaker 4: and they transit between Casarina and Daralen, and I will
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  Speaker 4: say not all of them are bad youth. It's you know,
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  Speaker 4: it's just what they do. So for entertainment. It's not
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  Speaker 4: really late at night most of the time, but from
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  Speaker 4: time to time it is.
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  Speaker 1: Do you guys ever have to sort of jump on
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  Speaker 1: those buses or you know, get on that public transport
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that there's sort of not bad behavior
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  Speaker 1: or things happening on there that shouldn't be here.
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  Speaker 4: We work closely with the transit safety officers. We meet
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  Speaker 4: with them quite regularly, we know them quite well, and
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  Speaker 4: from time to time we do joint operations with them.
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  Speaker 4: But in this particular instance, we rely on the transit
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  Speaker 4: safety officers to identify where those youth are so we
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  Speaker 4: can go and engage with them. And they're very very helpful,
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  Speaker 4: very very good at their job, and they contact us
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  Speaker 4: when they need help.
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  Speaker 1: Are those various sort of bus exchanges around the top
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  Speaker 1: end and around the territory? Do they end up being
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  Speaker 1: areas where you have to keep a really close eye
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  Speaker 1: sometimes on bad behavior?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it sort of.
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  Speaker 1: Seems like quite often we do hear of things happening
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  Speaker 1: at some of those bus exchange areas.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, the transit safety officers are there as much as
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  Speaker 4: they can be, and we supplement that with police attendance
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  Speaker 4: to it. They are gathering places, obviously for people going
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  Speaker 4: home from work or going to work, going home from
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: kitchen and from school. So you know, there are a
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: lot of people there for proper legitimate reasons, and they're
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: not the ones that we are particularly worried about. But
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  Speaker 4: we do work with transit safety to target the key issues.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Well, Police Commander Matt Holland be Commander of Darwen and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Road Policing.
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  Speaker 2: We are going to have to leave it there.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, before I let you go, can I just ask
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  Speaker 1: you most people been doing the right thing when it
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: comes to our COVID restrictions, I wearing masks and that
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: kind of thing.
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: In the main they have been. I think there were
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: six infringement issues yesterday. There's a media release on that.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: But all in all, I think it's gone fairly well.
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  Speaker 4: There are some people that think the rules don't apply
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: to them, but we'll do them. We'll deal with them
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: when we come across them.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Well, we better leave it there, Matt Holland. Be good
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to catch up with you this morning. Thanks so much
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: for your time.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Oh it is a pleasure, Katie.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you.