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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This discussion about whether alcohol should be banned from seven
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: pm at East Point came to a head last night
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: at the Darwin City Council meeting, the council voting down
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the idea to well not allow drinking past seven pm. Now,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the request that obviously come from the Northern Territory Police,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and joining me in the studio right now is Northern
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Territory Police Commander Matt Holland b Good morning Matt, Good.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Morning Katie, and good morning to your listeners.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Now. I know that this issue of public drunkenness and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: people drinking at East Point, it's something that probably a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: lot of us have witnessed ourselves down there. But what
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: prompted you to write to.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: The council Katie.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: We recognize that there are some issues at East Point.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: I think we've had it better than usual for quite
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: some months, but we recognize that that's turning.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Around a little bit.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: So it was the letter was a part of a
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: suite of tactical options to try and address the issue
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: at East Point. It was never designed to be the
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: silver bullet it was. It was a tactical option to
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: target the problem.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I guess the difficult thing is there's you know, a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: lot of people go down there and enjoy alcohol quite
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: responsibly at East Point, but then there is a small
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: group that are doing the wrong thing, isn't there.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: You know, we do get reports of anti social behavior
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: and sometimes violent behavior at East Point and it has
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: been increasing. And part of our job is to spot
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: emerging issues and deal with them as quickly as we can.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: And East Points a classic example where things have risen
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: in the eyes of policing and you know, I think
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: you know it's it becomes a policing problem, but it's
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: also an unemployment problem, and it's a homelessness problem, and
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: it's an alcohol abuse problem, and it manifests itself as
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: an anti social behavior problem. So yeah, we are targeting
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: that area. And this was just part of a suite
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: of tactical options to to actually target East Point.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, does it become for us, straight for the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: territory police when you are trying to deal with an
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: issue like this that, like you said, there's so many
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: facets to it.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you know, we work together quite closely with
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Counsel and Larichia Nation and other service providers. Council is
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: a stakeholder. It is their land, and you know, we
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: accept their decision and we'll move on and use other
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: tactical options.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Were you disappointed with their decision last night or you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: is it really a situation here where you've got other
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: tools in your belt that you're going to use to
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: try and deal with this issue? Now?
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Look, we asked the question, the council didn't accept the question,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: so we'll move forward and use other tactical options.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: There's obviously a bit of an issue with people and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: problem drinkers still being able to get their hands on alcohol.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Are the police at the moment really taking a bit
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of a closer look in this space? I know that
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: there's a few measures center in place for the Greater
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Darwin region in terms of, you know, showing that additional
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: sort of license and telling wherever you're buying the alcohol
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: from we're going to be consuming that alcohol at the moment.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: But is there a bit of a broader issue here
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: at the moment?
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Look, the licensing direction is another tactical option that licensing
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: have contributed to targeting the issue. I think you know,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: early in the COVID nineteen pandemic, Larichia Nation did a
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: sterling job in terms of repatriating long grasses and itinerants
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: back to their home communities. And I think the final
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: numbers was around a thousand mark that sent were repatriated
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: back to their home communities. Some of those people are
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: filtering back into town now and as we all know,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: there's more money around.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: With the job seeker and job keeper benefits.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: So yeah, there has been an increase in antisocial behavior,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: particularly at East Point, and this is part of what
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: we're doing, is targeting the problem.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: The Lord mayor convat Scarla spoke to me on the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: show yesterday and cited secondary supply as being a concern.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Is that something that is an issue at the moment.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Look, I think it's another tactical option that we are.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Taking action against.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: And you know, I think you'll see a little bit
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: more police activity out at each point in a variety
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: of different ways that to try and stoprobate the problem.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: He suggested that maybe there should be some kind of
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: special unit to monitor anti social behavior, but is there already.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, we've got a social order unit, and social
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: order policing is the responsibility of every police officer, so
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: it's you know, we don't need to create more units
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: to deal with policing problems. General duty's police deal with
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: general policing and so it's you know, it's incumbent on
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: all police officers to take action to reports or to
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: positively identify social and behavior issues.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Is it a bit of a situation here at the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: moment where you know, we that our police have got
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: a lot to manage. Obviously there's quite a number of
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: police out on the borders. Is there a situation where
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: realistically you guys are just trying to juggle everything.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I mean a lot's happening at the moment.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: We know, we all know that we've got our border
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: control points. We've got police at Howard Springs, We've got
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: police meeting flights in Darwen and Alas Springs. So yeah,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of things happening. But you know, we
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: still have our core policing duties to do as well,
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: and that includes violence and anti social behavior. But you know,
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: it's not just a policing issue. There's you know, there's
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: an unemployment issue, a homelessness issue, and health issues and
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: alcohol abuse issues that all contribute to the wider issue.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is something that I think as a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: community we sort of have these conversations every well, you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: every six months or so we see a real spike.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: And I know that there's plenty of different ways that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: these issues have dealt with, but you know, it's it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: never a good thing when you see people out drinking
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: alcohol in those really public places. I mean even this morning,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I was on my way to work driving through Stuart
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Park and there's two women having a fight in the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: park right there next to Vini's and you do just think,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: goodness mate, it's you know, it's a tough thing that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: we're all dealing with in the territory.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, it's tragic really, particularly you know, families fighting
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: is it's horrible. I mean, I just don't understand how
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: people can beat up other family members. It just doesn't
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: make sense to me. You know, some of the positives
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: to take out of it. A property crime is at
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: record lows, violent crime is marginally up over the coronavirus pandemic,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: and anti social behavior had been at the lower end
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: of normal. And you know, we've identified an increase, We've
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: self identified an increase, and we're looking to stop the
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: problem before it becomes bigger.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Well, Matt Holland B Commander here in the Northern Territory
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: with the NT Police. We really appreciate your time this
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: morning and no doubt we'll talk to you again in
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the very near future.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Is a pleasure, Katie.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you.