Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Councillor for the Waters Ward Brian O'Gallagher is running a petition to get a police station in the crime hot spots of Karama or Malak

Transcript

Councillor for the Waters Ward Brian O'Gallagher is running a petition to get a police station in the crime hot spots of Karama or Malak · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We do know that residents in the waters Ward of
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the council areas basically includes Karama, Malac, Moil and Eton.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We have heard on numerous occasions said it is a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: bit of a crime hotspot. But we know that residents
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: there and indeed one of the councilors are calling for
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a police station to be built in the area.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Now waters Ward Councilor.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Brian O'Gallagher is driving that campaign for a police station
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to be established in either Karama or Malac.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: And he joins me on the line. Right now, get
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: a Brian.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Get a Katie. How are you good?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Mate?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: What's the situation in the waters Ward? Right now?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Look, waters Wards a quite covers about eight suburbs, but
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: basically a lot of those northern suburbs Karama, Malac, Moyl Manula, Wilagi, etc. Look,
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: residents are really really fed up. And you know, I
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: know crimes elsewhere, but this particular area for years, particularly
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: over the last five years, has really been suffering. And
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: I think my job is to represent residents. Right. I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: on council and when I went to join council, I
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: said residence will be my boss. They'll be my boss.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: So I'm just conveying the views of residence. That's what
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: of them, And it's not ALPCLP or anything like that.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: It's just the residence and their concerns, and the biggest
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: concern they have is for their community safety and their
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: lifestyle being destroyed. I mean, there's so many break ins happening.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: They won't go to their own shopping center, which even
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: people who only live two or three streets away, it's
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: here to go to Crama shopping center. Now, that's not
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: good for local businesses, that's not good for anyone because
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: they just don't feel safe. And you would have heard
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: many stories about the service station up there, the gang's
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: going in with knives and all that stuff. Then there's
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: all the drunken behavior in the streets and so on
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: at nighttime. People worried about their families, their kids. And
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: as I said, I think I put in the letter
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: to the editor, I know it's a complicated issue. It
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: can't be sold by one single thing. So there's got
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: to be long term, medium term and short term strategy.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: In the long term, we've got to get the education right.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: We understand all that. We've got to get the justice
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: system right. We've got to do that, but we also
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: need to fix the here and now and why I
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: say a station, that really means the permanent police presence,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: the visibility of the police. People feel safer when they
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: see the police around.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Do you worry though exactly will you potentially end up
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in a similar situation in what some residents are saying
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: in Nightcliffe right now, where there is a police station
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: there but they still don't feel as though it has
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: much of an impact.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Well, I think it goes in parallel with the issue
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: of you've got to resource the police. Right. It's getting
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: the police there, and I think you're talking about the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: attrition rates of the police, which is really eleven percent.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's graceful, that's true, you know, so that's
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: got to be part of it. But people do feel
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: safer when they see a police and it's people get worried.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: I you're going to spend it on bricks and water. Well,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: they've got to stay somewhere. I was suggesting initially you
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: could just have a mobile caravan in the karma shops. Yeah, right,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: people can see the police. Right, you don't have to
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: go to the high end straight away. But we should
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: look at citing some permanent presence around Karma and Black
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: now and you know there's big issues. People are frustrated.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: They see and I'm not trying to have a go
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: of the government directly, but you know they see money
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: goes in the shade, structures that don't work, and money
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: being spelled spend elsewhere. Maybe they should be focusing on
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: this particular issue which really impacts the whole community.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Brian, I've got a message from a listener here saying, hey, KD,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: it'd be great if you could please ask Brian what
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: impact he thinks the bat and Road accommodation facility is
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: having on crime in Karama and Malac as well.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I've had a number of concerns of residents. They
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: think it's increasing the transient population walking through. There's two
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: edges of stories. We've had briefings from them and they say, look,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: we haven't actually increased the numbers. They're trying to do
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: some structural better facilities there.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: It's got to be looked at and it's going to
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: be looked as part of the whole community. I think
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: one of the issues I had with that was the
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: lack of consultation. Yeah, and I think once again, if
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: you don't talk the residents beforehand.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: You just drop stuff on they're going to be very concerned.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: But that is an issue, and I appreciate where they're
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: coming from, but I'm really worried, and I think there's
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: mothers out there, you know. I think in the INTI
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: News they quoted one of the ladies on a she's
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: been breaking into six times, seven times in the last
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: six months, and that she's got a big fence and
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: all that stuff. But that's just ridiculous.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Well, look, some of this intimate that we're seeing this
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: morning on the tech sign is you can build police stations,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: but if you don't have police to fill them, it's
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: going to be pointless. But you know, you have made
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: the points as well that even if it's a mobile policeman,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: permanent controls. You know what I guess you're calling for realistically,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: isn't it increase presence?
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, why we say a station that can be
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a longer term thing. If people actually see police walking around,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: they feel safer. The police actually instill confidence that things
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: are out there. And I give full credits to police,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: right I think they're under resource. They need to be
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: better resourced, and we need to address this but let's
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: do it now, because people at long term residents are
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: actually looking to pack up and go. They're set up
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: and that's not right.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Brian tell us, you know you've said there that there's
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: one lady who's obviously been in contact. She's also spoken
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to the paper saying that she's been broken into six times.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: For those that don't live in the area, what are
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the kind of issues that you're dealing with.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Oh, look, I think there's drunken behavior in the streets
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: and violence or around there's criminal behavior, break ins and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: all that houses have been broken into all the time.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: You can't go up to the shops without being watching
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: out for gangs or any social behavior humbugging you, and
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: people feel quite unsafely in that environment too. One of
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: the big issues I guess around Karma and Malac is
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: the over density of public housing. And look, I'm all
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: for public housing. I think public housing is critical for
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: those who are desperate, and I think we've got at
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: a seventy year waiting list, But there are issues in
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: public housing policy about saying there is community acceptable behavior
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: and it needs to be enforced and if you don't
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: do it out and I'm sorry if people don't like
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: that message, but we've got to send that message. You know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: you can't have houses being run as drug houses. You
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: can't have houses that have been reported for the police
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: thirty times in twenty days in Song because of violence
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: and all that, because you're disturbing the whole neighborhood.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: And Brian, do you reckon that's happening?
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon You've got a situation where in some
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of these public housing homes you've got people dealing drugs.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Oh? Absolutely, wow, Yeah, I have no fear and I'm
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: sure for police know that too. You know, you know,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: I'll have reasons to say, look, they could coming through
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: all the time they're going in there. And also but
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: it's the violence and the domestic violence going on and
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: the swearing current which CODs the whole neighborhood. Now, sometimes
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: I think they should look at this getting a wider issue.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: And I've had the same discussions with Narry a kid,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: and you know, you've got to talk to the government
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: of day and Larry has been very good in this thing.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: And I've taken a number of residents with their concerns
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: directly to her because you know, council doesn't run the police.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: We don't run public housing, so you've got to deal
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: with the part of government does. And yeah, they're really
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: really concerned.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Brian. Before I let you go, I understand that you
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: have got a petition going to help establish a station.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: How can people get involved? And have you had many
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: people sign it so far?
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Well, I've only just launched it, and yes I've got
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: and I'll be going around. But I did put in
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: the letter to the editor. If they come to my
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: council email, which is Brian dot O Gallagher O G
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: A W L A G A j A at Darwin
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: dot NT dot gov dot au, if they contact me
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: there and I'll be broadcasting. I'll get it out to
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: them personally so they can sign it. And I also
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: try and be up around shopping centers and that's so
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: people can sign there, because what I want to do
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: is say this isn't just Brian himself, Yeah, this is
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: actually the residence asking for this.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Well, Brian, we really appreciate your time this morning. We
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: are going to have to leave it there.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Thank you, mate.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: We have got lots of this morning. We are going
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to have to leave it there. Thank you so very
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: much for your time