Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Assistant Commissioner Greater Darwin, Road Safety and Support Travis Wurst says authorities are incredible stretched in dealing with the NT's antisocial behaviour

Transcript

Assistant Commissioner Greater Darwin, Road Safety and Support Travis Wurst says authorities are incredible stretched in dealing with the NT's antisocial behaviour · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio right now is Travis Wurst,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: who is the Assistant Commissioner for the Greater Darwin Region.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Assistant Commissioner.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Morning.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hang on, let me make sure I've got that microphone on.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'll try that again. Good morning to.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: You, Good morning.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: How are you very well?
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Now, before I get into some of the issues that
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: we've spoken about with crime, we do know this. Earlier
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: in the week, the IKAC Commissioner announced that he's going
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to be investigating allegations of improper conduct relating to the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: arrest and charge of mister Zachary Rolf, saying that the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: investigation will focus upon the period between the shooting incident
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and the presentation of mister Rolf for charging.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Assistant Commissioner, I know.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: That there probably isn't a great deal that you can
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: tell me at this point in time. Were police surprised
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: that the IQAC announced that this investigation would get underway.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure whether it was surprised or not, but
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  Speaker 4: we will certainly ensure that we cooperate with investigation to
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: allow it to deliver an outcome. And whilst that's underway,
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: there's a little more I can say, well, look.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I do want to speak
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: to you about, and I know that you and I
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: have spoken about this on quite a few.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: Occasions, is some of the issues that we're.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Seeing around the territory at the moment with anti social
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  Speaker 1: behavior and public drunkenness. We did just catch up with Paul,
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  Speaker 1: a business owner in Coconut Grove. There has Coconut Grove
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  Speaker 1: been a concern for you guys in recent weeks.
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  Speaker 4: Well, in the last seventy two hours or so, we've
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: had a number of I know there was a robbery
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  Speaker 4: reported there yesterday, which you reported on that yesterday, where
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: two young young males, whether they were used or not,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: are not entirely sure, robbed a lady at about two
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: thirty in the afternoon. That similar investigation, and that kind
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  Speaker 4: of behavior in broad daylight is not it's just entirely unacceptable.
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  Speaker 4: The individuals involved in that behavior behaving in a way
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  Speaker 4: that is not acceptable in our community or any community.
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  Speaker 4: Now we know in that area there's lots of itinerant
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  Speaker 4: people living rough from various remote communities. I can tell
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  Speaker 4: your listeners that yesterday task was tried and with our
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: dog Operations unit have recovered five style of motor vehicles
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  Speaker 4: in that area and may go back to the story.
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  Speaker 2: That you just had from Paul.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know necessarily if they link back to his
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  Speaker 4: particular story, but his scenario was heartfelt. People put their
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: lives into their businesses and it is one or two
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  Speaker 4: reckless individuals who undo that in a moment's notice, and
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  Speaker 4: it's just despicable behavior. We took two young men into
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  Speaker 4: custody that were from a remote community, who were living
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  Speaker 4: rough in that area, who've been stealing these cars. Their
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  Speaker 4: behavior links all the way back to their remote community and.
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  Speaker 2: Now they are currently in custody under investigation.
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  Speaker 4: So that's just one example of what is happening across
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  Speaker 4: the Greater Dalen area. It's happening on a daily basis. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 4: we're still seeing the large numbers of people living rough.
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  Speaker 4: I get asked questions about, you know, what is the
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: catalyst and why these people here. We've talked about why
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  Speaker 4: we think they're here. Why they've remained here, I would
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  Speaker 4: suggest is purely based on the access to alcohol. People
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  Speaker 4: say that why isn't the BDR helping to stop this?
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  Speaker 4: And interestingly, if you've come from a remote community where
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  Speaker 4: alcohol is not available and you haven't been in police
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  Speaker 4: custody or self referred previously because of alcohol, you're not
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  Speaker 4: going to go on the meday right now. In Darwen, access
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  Speaker 4: to takeaway alcohol is unrestricted. You've got access to take
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  Speaker 4: awy alcohol from ten until ten most days. Also on premise,
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  Speaker 4: drinking is obviously available to everyone. So access to alcohol
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  Speaker 4: in Darwin is one of the main reasons that people
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  Speaker 4: are still here.
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  Speaker 3: Travis.
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  Speaker 1: Earlier in the week we caught up with the Chief
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Bitister and we spoke about that return to Country program.
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  Speaker 1: He said that there'd been about four hundred people returned
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  Speaker 1: to country over the last month, but prior to that,
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  Speaker 1: the three months prior there really hadn't been many sentime
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  Speaker 1: or heading home all. Have you seen much of a
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  Speaker 1: reduction in that anti social behavior based on four hundred
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: people going back to community or are those numbers still
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  Speaker 1: quite high at the moment.
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  Speaker 4: So we had high numbers go back in December, and
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  Speaker 4: then they dropped off markedly after that, so around two
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  Speaker 4: hundred down down to one hundred in February.
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  Speaker 2: It has increased.
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  Speaker 4: It will get up to four hundred from today because
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  Speaker 4: today's at the end of March. It's not quite there yet.
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  Speaker 4: What we are seeing is a lot of people going
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  Speaker 4: home after the trial, and a lot of that activity
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  Speaker 4: means a lot of people gone back to our springs
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  Speaker 4: or Central Australia. However, it's not making a mark difference
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  Speaker 4: on what we're seeing from anti social behavior point of view. So, yes,
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  Speaker 4: people are going home. Some of those people who've gone
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  Speaker 4: home have been replaced by other people have come in.
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  Speaker 4: We are seeing spikes. Spikes is the wrong word. We're
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  Speaker 4: seeing an increase in activity that has all alcohol related.
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  Speaker 4: It has anti social behavior at its heart, but it's
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  Speaker 4: ending in violence now, whether that be domest violence, whether
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  Speaker 4: that be some of the footage that I've seen around
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  Speaker 4: the nightcliff shops where people are just punching on in
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  Speaker 4: broad daylight. Just the behavior that we do not accept
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  Speaker 4: in our community, but it is exacerbated when you add.
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  Speaker 2: Alcohols in the mix.
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  Speaker 4: These people don't behave like that when they're in the
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  Speaker 4: home communities, but here when inhibitions are lifted, we're seeing
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  Speaker 4: this change of behavior.
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  Speaker 2: It's just not acceptable.
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  Speaker 1: Now from a police perspective, it must be difficult as well,
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  Speaker 1: because if people are breaking like breaking laws, then Obviously
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  Speaker 1: the police can step in and arrest them, but if
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  Speaker 1: people are drinking publicly, they can't necessarily be arrested or
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  Speaker 1: you know, these different things that the police can do
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  Speaker 1: to you know, to help, but there are other things
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  Speaker 1: where you're not actually able to. I know it's not
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  Speaker 1: an easy fix, but what do we do here from
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  Speaker 1: the police perspective, it's really hard right now.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a really good point.
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  Speaker 4: So we've had about one hundred people go through our
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  Speaker 4: watchhouse in the last month. We've had the shelter is
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  Speaker 4: bursting at the seams. I've had about twelve hundred and
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  Speaker 4: thirty people. Now that's a combination of police larakia are
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: doing a good job in that space. They're utilizing that
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  Speaker 4: therapeutic option a lot, which is excellent, and they also
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  Speaker 4: get walkings that go to the shelter themselves, which they'll
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  Speaker 4: accept obviously because they need a safe place. We're seeing
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  Speaker 4: a twenty percent increase in our core volumes sort of
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  Speaker 4: day by day, and each call generally turns into some
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  Speaker 4: form of job or some response that's required for us,
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  Speaker 4: whether it's a response within the Joint Emergency Center or
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  Speaker 4: a frontline response.
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  Speaker 3: So essentially your work's gone up twenty percent.
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  Speaker 4: Call volume has and look, yes, our people, it's not
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  Speaker 4: like a football season where you get to the end
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  Speaker 4: of the season. I think that's over all, wait till
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  Speaker 4: next year. Our business is not changing. It is extremely busy.
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  Speaker 4: We do have lots and lots of care volume. We
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  Speaker 4: do have lots and lots of need from the community
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  Speaker 4: that we're responding to. So we're continuing to be agile
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  Speaker 4: with We've developed this new multi agency approach where Departner
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  Speaker 4: of Chief, Minister and Cabinet hold coordination meetings in mornings
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  Speaker 4: so that when we've got all this antisocial behavior and
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  Speaker 4: people camping living rough, we know where they are. We
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  Speaker 4: can actually focus our attention to try and break them
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  Speaker 4: out of that cycle. Some people choose to live like
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  Speaker 4: that and that's okay, but if there are opportunities to
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  Speaker 4: get kids to school that are living rough as people
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  Speaker 4: who want to go home but they just don't know
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  Speaker 4: how all those opportunities that we're trying to maximize that workforce.
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  Speaker 4: It's not a police problem. This is a multi agency
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  Speaker 4: This is NLCO need to be in this space, which
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  Speaker 4: they are. All the agencies are doing their best to
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  Speaker 4: pick up their game. Make sure that we're all working
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  Speaker 4: as hard as we can.
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  Speaker 1: Travels to those out there listening this morning who are
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  Speaker 1: feeling really frustrated. And again, I know you and I
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  Speaker 1: have spoken about this before, but are all of those
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  Speaker 1: agencies now working together? Are we in a situation do
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  Speaker 1: you think we were going to start to see a
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  Speaker 1: reduction in some of what we've been seeing on the streets.
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  Speaker 4: One of the things that happens historically in the in
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  Speaker 4: April is the weather changes and it's cold, and people
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  Speaker 4: don't like the cold, and I'll go home because if
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  Speaker 4: they're living rough and I walk around in the mornings
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  Speaker 4: and I see how they're sleeping, they can't do that soon.
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  Speaker 4: So that actually has there's that environmental factor that will
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  Speaker 4: work in our favor. But that doesn't mean everyone's going
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  Speaker 4: to go home.
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  Speaker 2: Some people.
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  Speaker 4: We can't force people to go home. So I know
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  Speaker 4: that the Baton road is bursting. That seems as well, yeap.
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  Speaker 4: So there just isn't the availability of housing, emergency housing
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  Speaker 4: for people who choose to live in the environment they're
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  Speaker 4: living in. If alcohol is a catalyst for people staying here,
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  Speaker 4: then they're not going to live in those environments anyway.
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  Speaker 4: So the last thing we want to do to break
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  Speaker 4: the cycle is have people enter the criminal justice system.
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  Speaker 4: So there needs to be some other intervention and that's
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  Speaker 4: what we're working hard to with all those partner agencies
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  Speaker 4: to make sure that's the case, because as soon as
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  Speaker 4: we're involved, something has gone wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Now I do want to ask you.
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  Speaker 1: I know that the Lord Mayor had mentioned on a
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  Speaker 1: the other day, and I don't know if this is
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: correct or not, that there's going to be permanent segways
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: around the city again.
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  Speaker 3: Is that right police on segway or is that the case.
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  Speaker 4: It's interesting that he's indicating what he thinks is the case.
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  Speaker 4: But look, we have been able to get resourcing back
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  Speaker 4: from COVID. We still have COVID responsibilities that we're still maintaining,
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  Speaker 4: and those responsibilities will be maintained going forward because that
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: still exists. The threat of COVID is still there. But
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  Speaker 4: we are being able to bring some of our frontline
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  Speaker 4: staff back and one of the opportunities that has presented
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  Speaker 4: is to be able to get people back on segways
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  Speaker 4: because it's an amazing opportunity to engage with our people.
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  Speaker 4: I actually went for a walk the other day and
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: come across the Segways who are helping a gentleman who'd
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: fallen over. He'd banged his head. He required medical attention.
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  Speaker 4: Segways could get there in a moment's night. So they're
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: a wonderful tool. I know the moll traders will be
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: very happy to see them back again, and we'll do
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  Speaker 4: everything we can to make sure that they're as presents
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  Speaker 4: they can be, to say that it's permanent. Something changes,
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: business changes, then they may not be there for a day,
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden there's a human cry.
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: So everything we can to get maintainment engagement.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Now, Travis, before I let you go, I do want
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: to ask.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: We know that last week we received a couple of
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: phone calls from women in their sixties who had had
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: money snatch from them while they were at the ATM
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: inside a shopping center, and one woman in particular said
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: that she was depositing five hundred dollars and had money
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  Speaker 1: snatched from her.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: She was pretty shaken by the whole ordeal.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: We also, obviously, as you'd just spoken about that lady
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: yesterday who'd had her laptop or her bag stolen in
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: broad daylight, we'd also heard I believe from the Watchee
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: that there was an elderly woman who was robbed in
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Palmerston on Tuesday. She was in her seventies, had her
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: phone and a handbag stolen getting off the bus at
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Woodcroft Avenue. Have we got a situation here where people
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: are targeting women and those maybe a little bit older
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  Speaker 1: because they're seen as an easy target.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: What's going on?
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Look?
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: Not necessarily we do see bags snatching as a crime
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: trend that pops up from time to time. There are
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: no linkages between any of them that I can see.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: The one at the shopping center that you spoke of.
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: The youth were identified very quickly. Police work really closely
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: with the security outfits that work at all of those
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: shopping centers, and I know that officers from Trient and
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Frontline identified those youth, actually recovered the money, and I
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: believe all but fifty dollars was a.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Return to that woman.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: That doesn't take away the trauma from what she was
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: exposed to from that particular offending, the matter you spoke
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: of at in Palmerston. Our adults are involved in that offending,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: So we can't put this down to youth or one
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: particular cross section of society. It is behavior that it's
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: concerning and disturbing. It comes and goes. It is actually
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: a change in behavior, so it's not just simply basic
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: property offending. There's a livel of violence that's associated with
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: We're seeing that across the board. We're seeing this level
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: of violence increasing in the behavior of criminality that we're
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: being exposed to, the community being exposed to.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: So it's a really disturbing trend.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: We're actually doing some more work on understanding that there
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: at the moment so that we can work with our
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: partners to be able to address what the root cause
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: might be. Now it could be a raft for factors,
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: but for us to be able to address it, we
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: need to understand it better. And I'm happy to talk
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: further about that when i know more of it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I reckon that'd be a good idea because
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I know for a lot of people listening, particularly if
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: you are a woman in your sixties or even a
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: little person like me.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: It's a bit bloody scary.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: And then you think to yourself, yeah, I don't want
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to walk into the shops and feel worried that I'm
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: going to be knocked over and have my bag flogged.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Now, I'm not going to provide commentary that's going to
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: scare people, but you just need to be aware of
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: your surroundings. Yep.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Same for business owners.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: We're unfortunately seeing a bit of a trend where businesses
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: are not securing their premise. There's been a few over
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: the last couple of weeks, unfortunately, and that has led
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: to opportunistic criminals actually breaking into their premises and having
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: an impact on that business.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: So there's small things that people.
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: Can do about looking after their own environment, making sure
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: that they are safe. There's websites out there that they
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: can access if they are after some information around how
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: to manage their business premise better. Obviously, business qures an
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: opportunity as well and ask that any business who needs
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: help seeks that help. A lot of businesses are now
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: much better prepared for. Unfortunately, the grubs that live in
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: our community that cause this pain to our business owners,
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: our residential sorry, our dwellings that get broken into the
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: residents in our community. I'm one of those. I'm not
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: unaffected by crime myself unfortunately, nor are the other police.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: But I can tell you that our police we are
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: working twenty four to seven extremely hard, never being harder.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: Our workload has probably never been higher, but they turn
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: up every day, they put on the uniform, they do
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: in an outstanding job in very tough circumstances, and I
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: think that's something that the publics sometimes don't see, and
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: I don't expect them to see it. But we're out
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: there twenty four seven and fighting hard to keep our
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: community safe. And sometimes the challenge gets away from us
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: because there's so much going on at one.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Point in time that we can't be everywhere at once.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: So that's why it's so important for us to use
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: all of our partner agencies to help support us in
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: that twenty four to seven challenge that is about community safety.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Well, Travis Worths, the Assistant Commissioner for Greater Darwin, we
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Thank you very much for joining us.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you,