Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Police Commander Danny Bacon says three break-ins and 28 domestic violence incidents are occurring each day in the Darwin region

Transcript

Police Commander Danny Bacon says three break-ins and 28 domestic violence incidents are occurring each day in the Darwin region · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we know that the latest Northern Territory crime statistics
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: have indeed been released, and they do make for some
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: sobering reading, that's for sure. House break ins and property
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  Speaker 1: crime up around the Northern Territory. Now this morning, though,
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  Speaker 1: we will focus mostly on the top end because joining
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  Speaker 1: me in the studio right now is Commander of the
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  Speaker 1: Darwin Region, Danny Bacon. Good morning to you, commander, Thanks
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning. Let's have a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a closer look at the Darwin crime stats first,
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  Speaker 1: just make sure I've got the right page up now.
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  Speaker 1: When it comes to things like assaults, fortunately those rates
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  Speaker 1: have gone down. House break ins, by the look of it,
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  Speaker 1: rose fifty one point six seven percent, commercial break ins
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  Speaker 1: up eighty two percent, your motor vehicle theft up forty
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  Speaker 1: one percent, and property damage up sixteen percent. I guess
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  Speaker 1: to a lot of people listening they're probably not overly
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  Speaker 1: surprised by those numbers. We get a lot of phone
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  Speaker 1: calls in here of people who have been impacted by crime.
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  Speaker 1: But what do you attribute those increases to.
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  Speaker 2: First of all, I'm not trying to minimize any impact
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  Speaker 2: that these crimes are having on the community of Dalen
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  Speaker 2: and certainly I suppose I just want to explain some
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  Speaker 2: of some of the reasons behind them and numbers behind that,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously property crime is one of those significant factors.
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  Speaker 2: It's obviously causing the greatest concern across the dah region itself.
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  Speaker 2: Those figures are quite disgusting in regards to the increases
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  Speaker 2: across the board, but I don't want to focus on
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  Speaker 2: those by and large, and I know that sounds quite
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  Speaker 2: quite weird, but even in just the last week, we
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  Speaker 2: had thirty one and awful entries, but we had one
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  Speaker 2: hundred ninety six domestic violence incidents. And when you look
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  Speaker 2: at those sort of statistics compared to each other, the
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  Speaker 2: significant decreases we've actually had in our domestic violence offenses
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  Speaker 2: across Darwin by nine percent down and Parlison down by
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  Speaker 2: two is quite significant in the scheme of things. So
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  Speaker 2: I just want to focus on those good things that
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  Speaker 2: I suppose that occurring within the community itself. Strike Force
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  Speaker 2: LERA is focusing on our violent crime across the greater
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  Speaker 2: day In area itself, our property crime, going back to
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  Speaker 2: the causational factors of that, your listeners and yourself would
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: be well aware of particularly the increase in itinerants within
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  Speaker 2: the greater Dawan area itself. I think we swirled to
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  Speaker 2: about just over three thousand. We're generally speaking that average
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  Speaker 2: between five to eight hundred. I'm not blaming all those
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  Speaker 2: property crime stats within those particular cohorts, but certainly they
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  Speaker 2: were a cohort that were significantly contributing to those sort
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  Speaker 2: of offending as well.
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  Speaker 1: And so have the number of people that were visiting
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  Speaker 1: from communities. Has it gone right back down again or
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  Speaker 1: where are those numbers sitting at the moments.
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  Speaker 2: I don't have a guest and at the moment, but
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  Speaker 2: certainly the information we're getting from our front line officers
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  Speaker 2: working on the grounds is that that's certainly back within
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  Speaker 2: that normal realm of between five hundred and eight hundred people.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of collective work being done by Laroche Nation,
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  Speaker 2: Town Council, raiges from Parmasan Dale, Litchfield, our Crown Lands
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  Speaker 2: and certainly Licensing and also our housing offices and youth
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  Speaker 2: outreach workers through Territory Family. So collectively all those agencies
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  Speaker 2: are working together to particularly engage with those people living
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  Speaker 2: rough within our greater region so I can engage them
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  Speaker 2: to find out why they're here and certainly assisting them
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  Speaker 2: into support accommodation to make sure that they feel safe
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  Speaker 2: as well, but also returning to country if that is
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  Speaker 2: a particular pathway that wish to go.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, there is no doubt, as you've pointed
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  Speaker 1: out right from the get go, there are decreases in
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  Speaker 1: certain areas. You know, even right now I'm looking at
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  Speaker 1: the Palmerston stats and we can see that there's been
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  Speaker 1: a decrease in domestic violence related assault. We can also
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  Speaker 1: see that there's been quite a significant decrease in sexual
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  Speaker 1: assault as there has been in well yeah, just in
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  Speaker 1: those two areas for Palmerston. But then again, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you look at the likes of those commercial break ins
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  Speaker 1: up forty five percent. So as you pointed out right
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  Speaker 1: from the start, there's no doubt that you know, this,
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  Speaker 1: this issue of property crime and commercial break ins is
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  Speaker 1: having a big impact on the community right.
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  Speaker 2: Now, having a significant impact in the community you're talking about,
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  Speaker 2: I think, well, well, roughly it's three per day within
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  Speaker 2: Greater Darwen. It's I know other publications have said there's
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  Speaker 2: a fense per eight minutes, but certainly a property offense
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  Speaker 2: unlaw fal entries it's three per day. You know, that's
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  Speaker 2: three too many online. But you know, when you, as
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  Speaker 2: I said, also domestic violence, you're talking about twenty eight
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  Speaker 2: per day. So you know, in context, that's where a
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  Speaker 2: lot of our resources need to be having some significant
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  Speaker 2: wins there. But what we need to do is obviously
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  Speaker 2: provide some further attention towards looking at our property crime areas.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so how do you juggle that? I mean, obviously,
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  Speaker 1: as the commander you look after the Darwin region, But
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  Speaker 1: how do you juggle that? Because as you pointed out,
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  Speaker 1: you know you've got real concerns across a number of
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  Speaker 1: different areas of the community. We quite you know, like
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  Speaker 1: we quite often have people call in and say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the police have done a tremendous job. They
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  Speaker 1: came out, they helped us with this or that. Others
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  Speaker 1: say I tried to call through and wasn't able to
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  Speaker 1: get in contact with the police. So how do you
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  Speaker 1: juggle it?
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  Speaker 2: I suppose the bottom line is we're not alone because
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  Speaker 2: we can't deal with these by ourselves. And then there's
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  Speaker 2: a number of great agencies out there, both working within
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  Speaker 2: government in the non government sector to work in this
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  Speaker 2: frontline space. So in reality, for us, it's actually making
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  Speaker 2: sure that those other agencies are supported so they can
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  Speaker 2: actually achieve some of their goals as well, and we
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  Speaker 2: can support them in that process. And hence talking about
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  Speaker 2: Alariki and Nation and the town council ranges and our
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  Speaker 2: transit and housing offices themselves. So it's working that collectively
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  Speaker 2: together to make sure that we're minimizing that social.
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  Speaker 1: Now I can see we look at the vehicle motor
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  Speaker 1: theft and you know, across some of the different locations
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  Speaker 1: that's gone down a little bit. In some others it
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  Speaker 1: has gone up. We get people call in, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and say that they have had their vehicle stolen. I
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  Speaker 1: know that we'd also spoken to the Assistant Commissioner, Travis
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  Speaker 1: Wurst about cars being stolen and taken out bush. Is
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  Speaker 1: that an area of concern at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: It is certainly we're seeing some of that slowly trended
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  Speaker 2: down over the last couple of weeks. Bearing in mind
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  Speaker 2: that these statistics are from July. There was a particular
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  Speaker 2: hotspot identified around the airport itself that's actually within the
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  Speaker 2: airport confines and the AFP responsibility, and they've also stepped
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  Speaker 2: up in regards to their proactiveness in that particular area.
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  Speaker 2: But there was certainly a trend where we saw later
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  Speaker 2: model vehicles being stolen and they were used to convey
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  Speaker 2: in a lot remote community. So a lot of that
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  Speaker 2: has been as they stopped, but certainly been reduced. There's
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  Speaker 2: also still an element of opportunistic crime there with house breaks,
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  Speaker 2: with car keys left on kitchen benches and a range
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  Speaker 2: of I suppose those opportunities doesn't walk away from what
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  Speaker 2: they figures currently are today and not making any excuses
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  Speaker 2: for them, but I certainly like to put forward that
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  Speaker 2: working along with all these other agencies, we are seeing
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  Speaker 2: some some good efforts in that area to try and
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  Speaker 2: reduce that.
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  Speaker 1: And I guess the interesting thing with the crime stats
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  Speaker 1: as well is there certainly you know they're sobering reading
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  Speaker 1: and you see those numbers and think, oh goodness made there.
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  Speaker 1: You know, some of them are really high, but they are,
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  Speaker 1: like you said, retrospective. So then you're looking back at
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  Speaker 1: you at the work that's sort of already happened, or
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  Speaker 1: at the crime that has already happened. When I guess
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  Speaker 1: you guys, you know, well, the police are certainly working
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  Speaker 1: day to day and dealing with the issues that you've
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  Speaker 1: got to you've got to deal with on that day
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  Speaker 1: to day basis. I know that that one of the
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  Speaker 1: issues we've been speaking about this morning has been those
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  Speaker 1: on our public bus network and on our buses. Now,
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  Speaker 1: from a police perspective, how are things going in this
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  Speaker 1: space at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of the institution and our transport well public
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  Speaker 2: bus system is preto only any social behavior as obviously
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  Speaker 2: there's some offending in the property offense area, but also
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  Speaker 2: in the violent offense areas well, But by and large
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  Speaker 2: it's asb I can tell you now that ASP has
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  Speaker 2: been trending down in regards to fending, So the Casher
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  Speaker 2: in Northern Suburbs area it's down thirteen percent over this
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  Speaker 2: time last year, Darwin down sixteen percent and Parmesan down
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  Speaker 2: twenty nine percent. Regards to any social behavior incidents across
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  Speaker 2: the board. That's not saying one incident is suitable. I
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  Speaker 2: was in no incidents, but we're seeing some trends go
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  Speaker 2: down that way. So we'll continue to work with our
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: transfer officers in regards to certainly assisting and reducing those
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  Speaker 2: further down the track as well.
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  Speaker 1: What about it in that Casuarina area, because again over
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  Speaker 1: the last few weeks, it doesn't we haven't had as
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  Speaker 1: many calls over the last week or so, but certainly
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  Speaker 1: in the last few weeks we'd had quite a few
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  Speaker 1: calls about that Casuarina area. I think you and I
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  Speaker 1: have discussed previously as well, that terrible incident where you know,
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  Speaker 1: a young fellow had been assaulted at the bus exchange.
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  Speaker 1: That was a little while ago now, But how are
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  Speaker 1: things going in that area at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: So, as I said, they're trending down for us, particularly
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  Speaker 2: across that network, the transport network itself, our alcohol policing
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  Speaker 2: operations working closer. So with those frontline services we know
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  Speaker 2: LaRoy patrol, the town council ranges and their outreach workers
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  Speaker 2: as well obviously the transport officers themselves. So we'll work
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  Speaker 2: with that particular team to also look at joint patrols
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  Speaker 2: as well. They hook up daily in regards to where
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  Speaker 2: their hotspots are, so we can maximize our resources across
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  Speaker 2: the board to where they're really needed.
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  Speaker 1: And what about with the you know, the public drinking
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  Speaker 1: that we've been seeing a lot of and a lot
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  Speaker 1: of our listeners are obviously concerned with as well, people
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  Speaker 1: drinking in those public spaces and then they're being the
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  Speaker 1: follow on I guess in some cases anti social behavior,
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  Speaker 1: in some cases just outright criminal behavior. How's that tracking
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  Speaker 1: at the moment, Well, they're.
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  Speaker 2: Those aspn since I've just mentioned about declining. So but
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  Speaker 2: as I said, one incident is one too many, So
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  Speaker 2: I'm asking the people to see that behaviors to to
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  Speaker 2: bring police. I understand some of the challenges sometimes that
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  Speaker 2: people are waiting a long time to get through. That's
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: because we are receiving calls to respond to matters. So
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  Speaker 2: we just to continue to report to police or report
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: to the larachie themselves so we can respond and we
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  Speaker 2: can deal with that particular matter.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So has there been a bit of a delay
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  Speaker 1: with some of those phone calls being answered in some
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  Speaker 1: cases or is it?
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  Speaker 2: It all depends obviously the nature of the call, the
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: time of the day. You know, with mobile phones these days,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: you know, previously you just get one phone call for
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: an accident, Now you're getting probably thirty, So you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's that call volume in short periods of time that
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: sometimes causes some delay with us answering the telephone but
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  Speaker 2: we will answer.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: The call before I let you go, Commander. Obviously, some
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: people listening this morning will be thinking, goodness me, those
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: crime stats in some areas are so high. You know,
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  Speaker 1: it's good to see the police making in roads in
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  Speaker 1: some of those other areas. But you know, what is
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: your message for the public this morning when it comes
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: to you know, when it comes to safety, but also
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the police work and you guys
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  Speaker 1: prioritizing what you're doing around the Greater Darwin region.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd just like to provide some level of comfort,
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  Speaker 2: I suppose to the community of dah and that were
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Certainly we're not alone in this space, and we are
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: working with all other agencies that have some skin in
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: this game to keep our community safe. And so that's
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: across the board. We are seeing some good wins in
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: some particular areas. Yes, we are aware of some of
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: those challenges and our property crime areas as indicated a
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: lot of those causational factors. As I said, with those,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: particularly those itinerant behaviors and itinerants, there is some collective
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: efforts there to engage with those and reduce that. With
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Cross Star on itself, we'll continue to work with all
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: those particular stakeholders that area, so we can improve in
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: those particular community outcomes, and so we can reduce some
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: of that crime in those areas with this biking.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Well commanded, Danny Bacon, always good to catch up with you,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Thanks Katy,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: thank you,