Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Commander Danny Bacon says while property crimes are up i the latest crime stats, the message seems to be getting through in the domestic violence space

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Commander Danny Bacon says while property crimes are up i the latest crime stats, the message seems to be getting through in the domestic violence space · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio right now is Northern
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Territory Police Commander for the Darwin Region, Danny Bacon. Good
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: morning to you morning Katy. Lovely to have you in
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  Speaker 1: the studio. We always appreciate your time. Now. Firstly, can
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I ask how did things go over the weekend with
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Base in the Grass.
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  Speaker 2: Base of the Grass went swimmingly well. It was a
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  Speaker 2: really really well planned event. Certainly, the patrons at tend
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: of the event by and large were great, which even
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  Speaker 2: flowed through into the CBD after the event itself, so
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  Speaker 2: very limited in regards to the issues there. I think
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  Speaker 2: security and police assisted removingbot one hundred and ten people
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  Speaker 2: from the event through various behaviors or jumping the fence.
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  Speaker 2: There was only five apprehensions throughout the night, two of
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  Speaker 2: those at the event itself, three in the CBD later on. Disappointingly,
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  Speaker 2: although we put out there that were sending the drug
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  Speaker 2: dogs down there, we had a number of drug and
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  Speaker 2: fringement notices issued, seven in total, cocaine, cannabis, MDA, kid
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  Speaker 2: of Mine. So people just aren't getting that message that
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  Speaker 2: you don't take drugs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, and it's so hard, isn't it? Because you
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  Speaker 1: think to yourself, like the organizers, they do a phenomenal
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  Speaker 1: job in terms of putting on a massive event, and
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  Speaker 1: you think, nearly sixteen thousand people there, But then, like
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  Speaker 1: you've said, still seventy. So seventy people done for drug
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  Speaker 1: offenses seven seven Sorry, oh goodness me, I was thinking, gee,
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  Speaker 1: that's still a pretty large number. Seven. That's much better
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  Speaker 1: than what I initially thought it is.
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  Speaker 2: But when you consider that we the organizers and certainly
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  Speaker 2: police are putting out there that will have our drug
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  Speaker 2: detection dogs there and will be screening, you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: a bit disappointed that people still choose to attend the events. Yea,
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  Speaker 2: with those.
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  Speaker 1: Substances and so various different substances obviously they've rocked up with,
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  Speaker 1: but by and large the majority have done the right thing.
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  Speaker 2: Majority of they've done the right thing. So I'm hoping
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  Speaker 2: that that really extends itself this weekend set it with
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  Speaker 2: the Ice House concert coming up as well, and said
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  Speaker 2: that we've also got the football then a rodeo on
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  Speaker 2: this weekend as well, So those number of events coming up,
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  Speaker 2: so we'll continue and work with those organized as well
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that those events are safe for those attendees.
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  Speaker 1: Now, one of the issues that you know that we
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  Speaker 1: hear a lot about on the show is some of
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  Speaker 1: the issues that we've got with crime when you talk
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  Speaker 1: about those residential break ins and also commercial properties being
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  Speaker 1: broken into. I know the latest crime stats have shown
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  Speaker 1: that certainly for the Darwin region, the house break ins
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  Speaker 1: rose by fifty three percent, commercial break ins are up
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  Speaker 1: seventy six percent, motor vehicle theft thirty five percent. Commander,
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  Speaker 1: what's being done in this space to try and really
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  Speaker 1: minimize the impact that we're seeing around Darwin right now?
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  Speaker 2: Good, good question, Katy, and certainly Darwen, and when I
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  Speaker 2: say dar and certainly incorporate Parmeersan and the Litchfield all up.
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  Speaker 2: They taking account thirty percent of property of crime over
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  Speaker 2: the last twelve months, which isn't I suppose for the
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  Speaker 2: listeners themselves here and now is what they're feeling. But
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  Speaker 2: it's certainly been an overall decreasing trend over the last
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  Speaker 2: decade in regards to property crime itself. As said, doesn't
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  Speaker 2: help the victims today, explaining that the housebreakings are quite high,
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  Speaker 2: so it's commercial. A lot of those crime types are
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  Speaker 2: certainly committed by some of our adult itinerants in town
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  Speaker 2: looking for alcohol. That's predominantly your commercial breaks, and what
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  Speaker 2: we're looking at regarding trends for our residential breaks are
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  Speaker 2: used and use looking for a wide variety of products
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  Speaker 2: from alcohol to the easy stuff that they can sell cash,
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  Speaker 2: but also looking pure once at me, just to steal
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  Speaker 2: a motor vehicle as well. So we're working with a
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  Speaker 2: lot of number of stakeholders. It isn't just a police problem,
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  Speaker 2: so we're working with a number of different agencies to
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  Speaker 2: address the offending themselves. So I have a look at
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  Speaker 2: why some of these patterns are occurring without our large
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  Speaker 2: itinerants and certainly with our youth offending as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it does seem a lot. That's what I
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  Speaker 1: guess been hearing as well from our listeners is that
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  Speaker 1: we have got this issue on one hand where we've
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  Speaker 1: got a lot of people in town at the moment,
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  Speaker 1: where it seems like we've got a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: in town at the moment, and some of those people
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  Speaker 1: and it's not all, but some of those people are
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  Speaker 1: certainly behaving in a way that you know that is
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  Speaker 1: not acceptable, eye breaking into businesses, into homes, and even
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  Speaker 1: the domestic violence or the violence that you're seeing on
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  Speaker 1: the streets to do you know if we've had any
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  Speaker 1: change when it comes to the numbers of the people
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  Speaker 1: that are here right now.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly, I know the amount of three thousand people rough
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  Speaker 2: sleeping has provided several weeks ago from I suppose any
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  Speaker 2: daily information from the ground, that probably fluctuates between two
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  Speaker 2: and a half to three thousand currently, and the numbers
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  Speaker 2: still are quite high for a wide variety of reasons.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly the last week returned to country of people returned
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  Speaker 2: to country over the last week period, so there is
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  Speaker 2: ongoing activity and engaging these people that are rough sleeping.
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  Speaker 2: Some of them aren't rough sleeping of their own accord,
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  Speaker 2: and some of them are there through a situation that's
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  Speaker 2: not their own bringing, so to speak. So there's a
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  Speaker 2: range of reasons why people are rough sleeping, So it's
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  Speaker 2: about engaging them, finding out what the issues are underlying
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  Speaker 2: issues are and addressing those.
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  Speaker 1: And I did note on Friday as well, a press
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  Speaker 1: release had come out from the Northern Territory Police about
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  Speaker 1: some of the patrols that were happening around East Point.
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  Speaker 1: I think there was some in perap and a few
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  Speaker 1: other areas as well where there was alcohol being tipped out,
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  Speaker 1: quite a large amount of alcohol that had been tipped out.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a police are working, he said, with a range
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  Speaker 2: of service providers here Alarika Nation City of the Parmesan
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  Speaker 2: Town Council and the Dale City Council. We've now set
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  Speaker 2: up I suppose two ASB teams, one predominantly operating from
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  Speaker 2: Palmerston with stakeholders and the Parmesan Lichfield REA and we're
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  Speaker 2: moving our ASP resources from Dalna, Caherina into Nightcliff Police
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  Speaker 2: station and they'll be coordinated through that particular point there.
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  Speaker 2: So you're seeing a lot more activity in the ASP space,
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  Speaker 2: but not just by police but other agencies that sort
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  Speaker 2: of operate in that area from there, so you will
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  Speaker 2: see a lot more pressure releases there of those activities.
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  Speaker 1: So two teams, one out in Palmerston and Litchfield and
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  Speaker 1: where is the other one.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the one in Parlison will be sort of looking
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  Speaker 2: at ASP activity in Parmisen and Litchfield, China, and the
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  Speaker 2: one in Nightcliff will be concentrating on darn and Caherina.
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  Speaker 2: So that's just combining resources so it can consolidate there
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  Speaker 2: and work with our stakeholders a bit more coordinated, so
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  Speaker 2: we can actually look at some of those hot spots
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  Speaker 2: from there.
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  Speaker 1: Sounds like it's going to be I mean to me,
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  Speaker 1: that sounds like a good thing, because it is something
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  Speaker 1: that's been a real concern over recent weeks. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't know why there's been such an influx of people,
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  Speaker 1: but it does seem to be having an impact in
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  Speaker 1: a lot of different ways.
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  Speaker 2: You normally get an influx in DAR anyway, on some
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  Speaker 2: of the largest centers generally do. There's a wide variety
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  Speaker 2: of reasons why people choose to come in here or
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  Speaker 2: are unable to get back home as well. So I know,
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  Speaker 2: certainly the situation at what I has contributed as well,
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  Speaker 2: and certainly what I residents are featuring largely amongst those
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  Speaker 2: rough sleeping currently within DAR on itself.
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  Speaker 1: So now, Danny, I want to ask as well about
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  Speaker 1: obviously you spoke then or you touched on through the
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  Speaker 1: crime stats as well. You touched on the issues that
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing with some of the adult itinerants around town,
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  Speaker 1: but you also touched on what we're seeing with some
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  Speaker 1: of the property crime as well, when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: homes being broken into and vehicle stolen with some youth offenders.
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  Speaker 1: I know that Stripeforce Strident had done a lot last
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  Speaker 1: week had they in this space, and trif.
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  Speaker 2: Trident is a it's a task force that's basically going
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  Speaker 2: to be here forever for us because properly crime unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: we'll feature on our landscape for quite some time. At
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  Speaker 2: the moment, they continue to have a good result in
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  Speaker 2: regards to completion rates, and we even look at some
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  Speaker 2: of our statistics of motive ecle theft itself. Whilst Dalin's
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  Speaker 2: up thirty six percent, that's the second lowest rate in
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  Speaker 2: ten years. And you know Parmesan likewise it's up thirty
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  Speaker 2: four percent about motivehicle theft, but again that's the lowest
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  Speaker 2: rate in ten years, which is so they are having
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  Speaker 2: some good successes from there in regards to like for example,
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  Speaker 2: over the week, and we had eight unawful entries itself
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  Speaker 2: over the week in the last three days from Friday.
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  Speaker 2: Three of those eight residences that were unlawful entered were
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  Speaker 2: through an unlocked door. So there's a lot of work
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  Speaker 2: that people can also do to assist themselves in that
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  Speaker 2: regards as well. But I'm very proud of the work
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  Speaker 2: that tried and do. They're very agile. They certainly get
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  Speaker 2: on top of the offenders in a quick and certainly
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: can identify those trends.
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  Speaker 1: Now Commander, when you look at those crime statistics, for example,
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  Speaker 1: because I know they are a snapshot obviously, and it's
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  Speaker 1: pretty easy for all of us to look at it
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  Speaker 1: and go, all right, well, this certain area is up
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  Speaker 1: fifty percent, I suppose For me, it's more about listening
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  Speaker 1: to people who we speak to each and every day
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  Speaker 1: about the issues that they're seeing around the place, like
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  Speaker 1: how heavily do those crime statistics play a part in
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  Speaker 1: the way that you deploy or the way in which
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  Speaker 1: you know you make sure that your resources are being utilized,
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  Speaker 1: because while they are, you know, a good resource for
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  Speaker 1: us to look at, I would imagine they're quite retrospective
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  Speaker 1: and what's happening on the ground is probably quite different
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  Speaker 1: to what you know, what you sort of look at
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  Speaker 1: with the crime stats.
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  Speaker 2: Crime stats generally speaking take about two three months to settle,
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  Speaker 2: just in regards to the reporting and confirmation of those
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  Speaker 2: particular crime stats themselves. As so the crime stats are
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  Speaker 2: reporting on today is two months old, in that regards
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  Speaker 2: to the data have been settled. So yes, we do
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  Speaker 2: meet regularly in Tech Coordination Group meetings regarding what's occurred
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  Speaker 2: over the last twenty four hours and what do we
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  Speaker 2: need to put in place over the next twenty four hours,
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  Speaker 2: and then we do that on a weekly basis as
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  Speaker 2: well to try and target what crime tripes are trending.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter how many times you've been a victim
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  Speaker 2: of crime, or if you've never been a victim of crime,
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  Speaker 2: but if once you are one, the whole world is
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  Speaker 2: collapsing on you, so to speak, it isn't nice feeling.
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  Speaker 2: So and when you get a number of those, it's
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  Speaker 2: just that perception and reality of fear that you have.
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  Speaker 2: So so what we try to do is try to
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  Speaker 2: resolve matters as quick as we can. And that's why
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: I sort of tried and is there for that quick
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: resolution phase in that bregion. And that's also why we've
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: kicked off Strike Force Lear as well, so we can
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  Speaker 2: do that in the domestic violence based at the same.
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  Speaker 1: Time, well, it sounds like it's always a busy time
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: for you guys. Just very quickly though, before I let
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  Speaker 1: you go, we understand that there was another fatality over
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  Speaker 1: the weekend on our roads. Another motorcycle crash, this time
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: in Central Australia.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, tragic circumstance and as I said, you know it
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: was National Road Safety Week and the Northern Territory had
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: three fatalities. It is very significant out of the twenty
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: one fatalities that we've had this year to date in
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: comparison that was ten last year. It's a tragedy on
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  Speaker 2: a number of different levels for the individuals and their families,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: obviously the broader community. And when you look at all
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: these fatalities, by and large, most of these are preventable.
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  Speaker 2: They really are. So we need to do a lot
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: more work, but also the community and individuals need to
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: do a lot more work in that space. I think
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: one day alone during that week we issued two hundred
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  Speaker 2: infringement notices for various different offending against the Traffic Act.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: So we're also looking at how we can improve that
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: within our own technology space and apprehending, so you know,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: investing in our automatic number plate recognition technology and putting
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: that within our traffic fleet as well, increasing our speed
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: cameras and those sorts of technology as well. But very
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: tragic results, it really are. So you'll see a lot
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  Speaker 2: more of police activity out on the roads trying to
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: you know, I suppose enforced traffic. We don't want to
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: issue tickets, we really don't. We just want to save
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: lives because it is a tragedy, it really is. And
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: as I said, we have twenty one this year to
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: date already.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: It's terrible. Well, Commander Danny Bacon, the commander of Darwin
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  Speaker 1: and Road Policing, We always appreciate your time. Thank you
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: very much for coming into the studio this morning.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Katie, thank you, thank you.