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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Commander Matt hollandbe the commander for Darwin and Road Policing.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Good.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Morning, Katie, Good morning to your listeners.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Now, obviously we've seen and we've spoken a little earlier
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this morning about some of the youth related crime in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Alice Springs. But speaking of crime and those stats for
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Darwin and Palmerston, they were released obviously on Friday, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: things are going quite well in Darwen and Palmerston at
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the moment, aren't they.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: Look, the figures that were released on Friday are for
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: the month of August, and we've done a little bit
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: of research and as far as we can tell, it's
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: the lowest monthly total for at least probably around ten years.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, Darwin, which includes Casarina in the Northern Suburbs,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: for the month of August, had five commercial breakings and
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: as an example, for the month and Palmerston commercial breakings
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: there was two. So you know, we're talking exceptionally low
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: figures and the challenge for us is going to be
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: to maintain at those record low levels.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And then of course, you know when you talk about
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: those commercial break ins being down, how did things go
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  Speaker 1: with the residential on the residential side of things, so
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: they down as well.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they are quite substantially, Like Palmerston had six residential
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: breaks for the month of August, and you know, the
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: monthly crime figures for both Darwin and Palmerston are as
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: low as we've ever seen them. So that includes stealings
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: and criminal damages. So I guess that's one positive outcome
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: of the coronavirus.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, what is it attributed to?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon it? Is it the fact that so
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: many of us is probably spending a little bit more
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: time at home than what we usually want.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I think it's a combination of.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Natural crime preventions or of people being at home or
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: home more often, the job keeper payments. Obviously people have
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: money that they wouldn't otherwise have. The liquor restrictions may
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: have played a part in it, and also early in
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: the piece a lot of the itinerants were repatriated to
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: their community, so that was a positive. And some might
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: say that the availability of illicit drugs at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: given that all the travel restrictions may have played a
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: part as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hadn't even thought of that, but have you.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, have you seen that there's been a decrease
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in people being able to sort of get their hands
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: on that kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 3: I look early in the piece, there was obviously a
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  Speaker 3: lot of travel restrictions, and particularly the drugs that cause
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: the most harm being and feta means ma fam fata
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: means usually come from inter state and when there was
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: no flights and the inability to get across borders, it
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: made it really hard to bring it up here. So
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: it could be a contributing factor to the record low
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: crime rates.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess you know, you talk about Corona obviously
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: having an impact on every day business, but then when
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: you talk about the type of trade that we don't want,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: it's obviously having an impact there as well.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And I will say that the police force
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: obviously is fairly stretched. You know, we implemented leave restrictions,
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: we implemented a twelve hour roster, we shut down some
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: non essential services, and I think there's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: credit that needs to go to the people on the
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: front line that have staffed our emergency operations centers, staffed
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: how It springs, staffed border control points and done a
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: really good job at it.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to say I really noticed, obviously going
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: back to Queensland and then coming back into the Northern Territory,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and I said it last time I went as well,
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  Speaker 1: that you can really see when you arrive at the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Darwin Airport that we're doing a tremendous job in terms
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of making sure that people are answering questions about where
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  Speaker 1: they've been, what they've done. We're really quite strict in
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  Speaker 1: that sense. And that's obviously the police, it's the Health Department,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: it's everybody involved.
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  Speaker 3: It's a team effort. And I'm just driving here this morning.
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  Speaker 3: I heard the Chief Minister on the radio and we
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: are quite practiced at emergency responses because it's the same
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: players across government and non GUB sectors that were involved
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: in all emergencies. So we work quite well together and
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  Speaker 3: I think, you know, the outcomes in the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 3: in part are attributed to the hard work of all
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: those people.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Now, Matt, there does still seem to be quite you know,
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  Speaker 1: there is still quite a bit of public drunkenness. I
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  Speaker 1: guess you might say. Even this morning driving through Stuart Park,
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  Speaker 1: there was a lot of people sort of sleeping in
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  Speaker 1: the park, near the shops there in near Saint Vinnie's.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I'd noticed even on Friday there was a
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: situation where there was people fighting on the road where
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  Speaker 1: I had to call the police because there was somebody
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: sitting in the middle of the road on the Stuart
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  Speaker 1: Highway and Stuart Park, I know, in the narrows. Unfortunately,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: over the weekend there was somebody struck by a vehicle
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  Speaker 1: on the road. I'm not sure whether alcohol was involved
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: in any way in that incident, but there does still
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: seem to be a bit of public drunkenness around, isn't there.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 3: You obviously be aware of the each point issue that
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: we had and we tried to do something about it.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: But we had it good for quite some time when
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  Speaker 3: all those hardcore itinerants went back to their communities, and
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  Speaker 3: it is becoming more noticeable. But you know, that's a
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: challenge for us, and we'll do what we can and
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: work with our colleagues and other service providers to.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Try and keep it at Darwin as a good place.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: With those alcohol restrictions. Where are things at with those
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: restrictions which are still in place. Obviously with takeaway alcohol,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: they're still remaining at this point in time.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: That's correct, because it's operating under an emergency power. It
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: goes from week to week, and at this point, to
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: purchase alcohol, you also have to demonstrate that you have
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: a lawful place to drink it. And you know it
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: does put some onus on the licensees, but you know
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: they have licenses, so they need to be responsible with
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: their licenses as well.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Most people adhering to that in terms of I suppose
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: people purchasing alcohol, but also businesses making sure that they
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: are indeed asking people where they're going to drink.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: Look, I think so we are doing some work in
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  Speaker 2: that space.
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  Speaker 3: We would like to I can't tell you, hond on
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  Speaker 3: heart that everyone's doing a fantastic job at it, but
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: you know, it's not that hard to ask somebody where
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: you're want to drink it. So we just encourage licensees
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: to fulfill the obligations of their license and the direction
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: of the licensing commissioner.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Now, obviously, Commander, probably a good thing that things are
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: going quite well in Darwin at the moment, because, like
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: you said, there's certainly lots of different places that our
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: police need to be I know that some of our
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: police as we heard from the Chief Minister a little
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: while ago from Strikeforce tried and have headed down to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: our Springs to help out down there. Is it quite
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: difficult sort of managing resources and managing everybody when you
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: know we are requiring people in different areas at the moment.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Look, we deploy people to where they needed the most
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: and right now they are needed in our springs. There
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: was an upsurging crime over the last week or two
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  Speaker 3: and you know, one really tragic incident where somebody was
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: stret by a vehicle. So you know it's not the
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Darwen Police, it's an Ordn Territory place. So we pitch
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: in and yeah, we've sent people from Strikeforce Trident down there.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: If you want to see something really amazing, I don't
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  Speaker 3: know if you've seen the drone footage of a car chase.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: It was really really good. It's on the police facebook page.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: I think it might be the Ali Springs police Facebook page,
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  Speaker 3: but it shows the technology that we're using to catch
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: some of these people committing crimes.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, we'll have to go and have a look. We
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  Speaker 1: might be able to share it on the mixed page
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: so people get a good idea of exactly how things
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: are working.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and look it's just another it's another tool that
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  Speaker 3: we can use. It works better in our springs than
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  Speaker 3: it does in Darwin because we've got an airport right
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: in the middle of the city. But yeah, it's an
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: emerging technology that we're getting our heads around.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's here to stay.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Well, Commander Matt Hollanby, of course, commander for Darwin and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Road Policing. We always appreciate your time. Thanks very much
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: for coming in this morning.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Always a pleasure. Katie, thank you.