Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Police Darwin and Road Policing Commander Matt Hollamby

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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Police Darwin and Road Policing Commander Matt Hollamby · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Mix one O four point nine dot com for all
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  Speaker 1: the latest news and information. Now three sixty with Katie Wolf.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone is listening. Mix one oh four point nine one
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  Speaker 1: hundred percent ant.
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  Speaker 2: Now joining me in the studio from the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 2: Police Commander of Darwin and Road Policing, Matt HOLLANDB.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 4: Good morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Now, firstly, Commander, can I just ask we know that
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  Speaker 2: just before eight pm last night, two males allegedly entered
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  Speaker 2: the sexy Land store in Stuart Park, one of them
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  Speaker 2: armed with a machete. As I understand it, they threatened
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  Speaker 2: the female staff member.
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  Speaker 3: Where are things at with this incident?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Katie, I can confirm that we are investigating an
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  Speaker 4: incident of that nature. I just got to be a
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  Speaker 4: little bit careful because we have a fourteen year old
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  Speaker 4: youth in custody at the moment. But we will allege that, yes,
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  Speaker 4: they did enter the Sexy Land with a weapon. We'll
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  Speaker 4: also investigating an incident that happened shortly before they with
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  Speaker 4: what we will alleges the same two people.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so it was beforehand the alleged car jacking.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's our understanding. So they happened in a very
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  Speaker 4: close space of time, close period of time. Police responded
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  Speaker 4: really quickly and apprehended the fourteen year old, and we're
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  Speaker 4: still searching for another person in relation to the both incidents.
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  Speaker 2: Can I just ask, are the victims in these cases,
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  Speaker 2: the people that were obviously working at sexy Land and
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  Speaker 2: also the victim inside that car, are they okay?
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  Speaker 3: From what you can gather, from what.
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  Speaker 4: I can gather physically, they're okay, but obviously it'll be
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  Speaker 4: a traumatizing experience. So you know, our thoughts are with
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  Speaker 4: them to they are victims, and we hope that they
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  Speaker 4: make a quick recovery.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Matt, can I just ask how quickly were the
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  Speaker 2: police able to apprehend that fourteen year old?
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  Speaker 4: Look, it was within a very very short space of time.
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  Speaker 4: I won't say minutes, but within a short space of time.
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  Speaker 4: So very quick response and very quick apprehension of that individual.
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  Speaker 4: Founder and obviously there's a bit more work to do.
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  Speaker 2: Yet, So still searching for the second alleged defender. If
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  Speaker 2: there is anybody out there listening, if they've got any information,
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  Speaker 2: get in contact with the police.
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  Speaker 4: Look, please do if you have any information about the incident.
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  Speaker 4: We think we know the identity of the suspect, but
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  Speaker 4: if anyone does have any further information, please contact the police.
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  Speaker 2: So by the sounds of things and tell me if
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  Speaker 2: you can't say, but it does sound as though they
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  Speaker 2: were known to the police.
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  Speaker 4: Look, I can't go that far. What I will say
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  Speaker 4: is we do have a fourteen year old in custody
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  Speaker 4: at the moment in relation to that incident.
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  Speaker 2: All right, Commander, can we go through the latest crime stats?
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  Speaker 2: I do want to take a closer look at these,
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  Speaker 2: But before we do, can I ask what period of
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  Speaker 2: time are these crime stats for? Because I feel like
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  Speaker 2: sometimes that gets a little bit confused.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely, So these crime stats are for the last
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  Speaker 4: twelve months to the end of February compared to the
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  Speaker 4: twelve months before that. So these current stats include all
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  Speaker 4: of the crimes reported to the police in the last.
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  Speaker 3: Twelve months, so really during that lockdown period.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. So look, if you look at the incredible low
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  Speaker 4: unlawful entry rates, that includes the six month period of
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  Speaker 4: last year where we had record lows. So they are
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  Speaker 4: still captured in the last twelve month figures starting next
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  Speaker 4: month and the month after some of those months will
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  Speaker 4: start sliding back into the year before figures. But what
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  Speaker 4: I can say is, and you know, bearing in mind
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  Speaker 4: these we've been using these stats for fifteen ic years,
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  Speaker 4: they're not really the ones we use for policing purposes.
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  Speaker 4: So we used daily, weekly, monthly, as well as longer
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  Speaker 4: term trends. But what I can say is, other than
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  Speaker 4: November last year in the Greater Darwin area which includes
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  Speaker 4: Dale and Casirin and Parmeston, other than November, all of
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  Speaker 4: the months were lower than the previous months. But just
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  Speaker 4: record low six months is what will be starting to
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  Speaker 4: benchmark against in the not too distant future.
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  Speaker 2: So really, I guess reading between the lines, we could
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  Speaker 2: anticipate that we're going to see some an upward trend
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  Speaker 2: with those crime stats, given the fact that we're now
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  Speaker 2: going to be sort of from this point on comparing
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  Speaker 2: to a COVID year.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, statistically it may appear to be an upward trend,
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  Speaker 4: but our job is to is to know crime prevention
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  Speaker 4: preventative measures, act quickly to prevent crime, and if it
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  Speaker 4: does occur, to respond really quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because some of those I guess some of those
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  Speaker 2: statistics may be a bit of a surprise to people,
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  Speaker 2: some of them will not be. But alcohol related assaults
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  Speaker 2: across the Northern Territory jump to staggering twenty eight percent,
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  Speaker 2: while domestic violence related as one jumped twenty six percent.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, some of those figures are quite staggering. But
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  Speaker 2: what are police doing to try and work on those stats?
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  Speaker 4: Firstly, Yeah, look, it's as I say, it's a it's
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  Speaker 4: a twelve month trend. Yeah, and you know, over the
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  Speaker 4: last twelve months we've seen some things that I don't
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  Speaker 4: think we'll ever see again end of the future with
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  Speaker 4: you know, lockdown's boarder control points, biosecurity control points, repatration
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  Speaker 4: of vulnerable people, job keeper job seeking, stimulus payments, alcohol
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  Speaker 4: prevented measures, no tourist season that you know, it just
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  Speaker 4: the list goes on and on and on. But having
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  Speaker 4: said that, yes, assaults and particularly alcohol related and domestic
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  Speaker 4: violence related assaults are trending upwards in Darwin, Parmerstan is
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  Speaker 4: probably the worst of the lot.
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  Speaker 3: What do you reckon the cause of that is?
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  Speaker 4: Look, I think the you know, there has been more
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  Speaker 4: money available. Yeah, and after the lockdowns there was a
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  Speaker 4: resurgence of people coming to Darwin from regional areas, and yeah, look,
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  Speaker 4: alcohol has played a key role in it, and you'll
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  Speaker 4: be aware of, you know, some of our alcohol preventative
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  Speaker 4: measures that that have occurred over that period of time.
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  Speaker 4: But there's still a lot more work to be done
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  Speaker 4: in that space.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and so are you looking at maybe doing some
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  Speaker 2: additional things in that alcohol space to try and curb that.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it is a causal factor, so we have to
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  Speaker 4: look at it. And you know, in terms of victims,
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  Speaker 4: we're looking at repeat victims, repeat offenders, and you know,
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  Speaker 4: trying to will prevent assaults and prevent people from being hurt. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: very disturbing and obviously a lot more work.
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  Speaker 2: To be done, absolutely, and I guess it's one of
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  Speaker 2: those things that you're always working on when you when
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  Speaker 2: you talk about assaults, and certainly when you talk about
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  Speaker 2: alcohol related assaults. Can I ask as well, I know
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  Speaker 2: one of the things that we talk about quite a
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  Speaker 2: bit on this show is house breakings and commercial breakings.
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  Speaker 3: As well as vehicle theft.
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  Speaker 2: We have seen a massive decrease by those by the
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  Speaker 2: standard of those statistics. But from what I can gather
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  Speaker 2: from what you're saying to me at the moment that
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  Speaker 2: police you know, you look at things more so in
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  Speaker 2: real time rather than these stats from sort of twelve
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  Speaker 2: months ago, because you've got to keep up with what's
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  Speaker 2: happening right now.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I mean the these you know, we need
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  Speaker 4: to know what the trends are, but we also need
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  Speaker 4: to deal with the hero and now as well. And
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  Speaker 4: in terms of the here and now, you'll be aware
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  Speaker 4: of our recent Casuarina operation that was a quick response
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  Speaker 4: to an identified issue. The start of the issue was
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  Speaker 4: a series of shopliftings by youth of from bottle shops
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  Speaker 4: and they all happen in a very short space of time,
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  Speaker 4: so we needed to act and act act quickly, and
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  Speaker 4: you know, we discovered some other issues out of it,
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  Speaker 4: like anti social behavior and the Casurina era. And that
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  Speaker 4: operation has been going for just under two weeks. Technically
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  Speaker 4: it wrapped up yesterday, but we'll review on reassess on
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  Speaker 4: where we're going to go.
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  Speaker 2: And you've got some pretty good, pretty good numbers in
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  Speaker 2: terms of that operation as well, didn't you.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Absolutely. I think a media release will come out
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  Speaker 4: later today on some firm numbers. But it highlighted an issue.
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  Speaker 4: We reacted quickly and we put a put a stop
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  Speaker 4: to it before it got out of control.
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  Speaker 2: Can I ask I know that there again, there'll be
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  Speaker 2: some people listening thinking, well, you know, these record low
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  Speaker 2: commercial breakings and home breakings, it sort of doesn't resonate
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  Speaker 2: with the community right now when you've got people still
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  Speaker 2: being broken into.
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  Speaker 3: What would you say to those listeners?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I thoroughly agree. Look that crime is not at
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  Speaker 4: the same record low levels as it was mid last year,
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  Speaker 4: but it is lower than it was on a month
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  Speaker 4: by month basis from last year. But you know, people
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  Speaker 4: are a lot more socially aware these days. You know,
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  Speaker 4: crime is played out in the social media, it's played
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  Speaker 4: out in the media, and one crime that's heavily publicized
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  Speaker 4: does influence people's perceptions. So you know, there is technically
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  Speaker 4: less property crime, but that doesn't necessarily make people feel
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  Speaker 4: better about it.
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  Speaker 2: So we have got a message from one of our
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  Speaker 2: listeners asking if there is an attempted break in, what
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  Speaker 2: does that count as in the crime statistics.
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  Speaker 4: Attempted breakings usually involve damage to property. It's a standalone crime.
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  Speaker 4: It's attempted unlall flentry, so it is counted as an
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  Speaker 4: unlall flintry, as an attempted unlall flintry. So yeah, it certainly,
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  Speaker 4: it certainly counts as a crime, and it counts towards
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  Speaker 4: the overall number of property crimes.
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  Speaker 2: So it is still included in those in those crime stats. Yeah, absolutely,
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  Speaker 2: commander anything else we should be aware of when we
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  Speaker 2: talk about those crime stats. But also in terms of
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  Speaker 2: moving forward in some of those different areas that you're
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  Speaker 2: planning on focusing on.
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  Speaker 4: Look, I think you know, we have a challenging time
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  Speaker 4: in terms of our community reassurance messaging, in terms of
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  Speaker 4: what we're benchmarking against in six months time. It's going
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  Speaker 4: to be difficult and challenging to meet the same positive
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  Speaker 4: levels that we had twelve months ago. But the community
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  Speaker 4: can help. I mean, the community are our eyes in ears,
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  Speaker 4: you know.
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  Speaker 2: It's yeah, well it's one of the things that we
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  Speaker 2: sort of we hear a bit is people say, oh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, look, we didn't report it because it was
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  Speaker 2: a broken window, and we thought, oh, the police aren't
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  Speaker 2: going to you know, they're so busy, they're not going
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  Speaker 2: to be able to do anything. But do people need
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that even if it's something that they
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  Speaker 2: maybe feel isn't as significant, they still need to report
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  Speaker 2: it to you guys.
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  Speaker 4: Well, the thing about reporting to the police is that
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  Speaker 4: we can then build up trends and issues and patterns
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  Speaker 4: and identify hot spots, identify crime series, identify RECIDVIS defenders
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  Speaker 4: and work out how we're going to stop it. So
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  Speaker 4: you know, we do rely on the community. We rely
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  Speaker 4: on the community reporting suspicious people and suspicious activities in
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  Speaker 4: the community and at the end of the day, we
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  Speaker 4: are here to serve and protect our.
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  Speaker 3: Community absolutely well.
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  Speaker 2: Northern Territory Police Commander for Darwin and Road Policing Matt
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  Speaker 2: Hollanby always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you, always a pleasure, Katie