Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Police Commander Matt Hollamby speak to Katie Woolf on 360

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Police Commander Matt Hollamby speak to Katie Woolf on 360 · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But joining me in the studio right now is the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police, well, the Darwin commander, Matt Holland b
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Matteah.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Kading, Good morning to your listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Now let's go through some of the incidents that occurred
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  Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend. Firstly, I know that
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police are actually investigating the circumstances surrounding
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  Speaker 1: the death of a man in Darwin on Saturday morning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a man did die.
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  Speaker 3: In the CBD, the circumstances are still being investigated, and
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  Speaker 3: I can't really take that very much much further at
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  Speaker 3: this stage.
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  Speaker 1: Are you calling for witnesses or asking people for further
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  Speaker 1: inview if there is.
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  Speaker 3: Any look, if anyone knows anything about it, or particularly
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  Speaker 3: if they did see the intern or of the aftermath,
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  Speaker 3: we'd encourage them to contact police as soon as possible.
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  Speaker 1: And of course we do know that that man's body
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  Speaker 1: was discovered on Wood Street in Darwin City about six
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  Speaker 1: point thirty in the morning. So if you have got
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  Speaker 1: any information which could assist the police, one three one
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  Speaker 1: triple four is the number to call through Matt. We
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  Speaker 1: also know that over the last few months. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: there has been a few more incidents, it seems of
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  Speaker 1: some different situations at service stations overnight and over the weekend.
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  Speaker 1: On Friday night, a young male was arrested late on
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  Speaker 1: Friday night for attempting a robbery at the United service
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  Speaker 1: station in lud Miller. What happened in this one, Look.
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  Speaker 3: Katie, it's the same modus operandi all the time where
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  Speaker 3: young kids enter a store, they either distract or confront
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  Speaker 3: the service station attendant and try to steal low value
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  Speaker 3: items slight cigarettes and food and drinks. But there was
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  Speaker 3: one where three people, three youth have been arrested. That
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  Speaker 3: happened in the United and the CBD, the one that
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  Speaker 3: lad Miller is still under investigation.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, the issue.
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  Speaker 3: With the service stations is that we've put a lot
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  Speaker 3: of time and effort into youth operation and also they
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  Speaker 3: have first class, first grade CCTV, so it's not really
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  Speaker 3: hard to solve a lot of these crimes either.
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  Speaker 1: And so obviously the one with the young bloke in
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  Speaker 1: luod Miller, it's still being investigated. But that United CBD
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  Speaker 1: one was that over the weekend as well.
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  Speaker 3: That was over the weekend, and yeah, three youth have
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  Speaker 3: been arrested for that. I don't have the rages. I
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  Speaker 3: think one was seventeen and two or thirteen, so wow, yeah, some.
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  Speaker 1: Of them seem so young, Matt. You know, like in
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  Speaker 1: some of these situations where the Northern Territory Police are
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  Speaker 1: making these arrests in some cases, you know, eleven years
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  Speaker 1: old and that kind of thing. It must be, you know,
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  Speaker 1: quite frustrating and horrifying for you guys sometimes when you're
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  Speaker 1: picking kids up that young.
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  Speaker 2: Look at his heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, our current youth operation is intent on engaging
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  Speaker 3: with youth that are wandering the streets at ridiculous hours
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  Speaker 3: of the night. And we find that a lot of
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  Speaker 3: them are wandering the streets because they want to hang
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  Speaker 3: out with their friends and they want to get up
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  Speaker 3: to know good and you know, it's all about early interventions,
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  Speaker 3: so we can engage with them, engage with the families
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  Speaker 3: and see how well they're being looked after, see if
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  Speaker 3: they go into school, making referrals to education and in
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  Speaker 3: appropriate circumstances, making referrals to territory families as well. And
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  Speaker 3: it's not just for the kids, it's for the families
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  Speaker 3: as well. But you know, the children themselves are young children,
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  Speaker 3: and people are supposed to raise their children well and
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  Speaker 3: in a lot of these instances that they haven't been
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  Speaker 3: raised very well at all.
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  Speaker 1: Now, with those service station incidents, as I said right
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  Speaker 1: at the start, there had been a lot of you know,
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  Speaker 1: a lot of vision that we've been seeing and quite
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  Speaker 1: a bit coming out of some of those service stations
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  Speaker 1: where they are clearly being targeted by these youths. Have
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  Speaker 1: you found that it's quiet and down once you guys
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  Speaker 1: have now put that pressure on.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I'm not saying it's gone completely, but it has
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  Speaker 3: quite and down for what it was six or eight
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  Speaker 3: weeks ago when we started this operation.
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  Speaker 2: I mean we started it early.
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  Speaker 3: We started it actually before some of the footage came
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  Speaker 3: to prominence.
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  Speaker 2: But again it's it's.
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  Speaker 3: It's about engaging with these kids that you know, some
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  Speaker 3: of them just want to be you want attention. But
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  Speaker 3: what we find with our problem use is almost in
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  Speaker 3: all of all the cases, they've been exposed to domestic
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  Speaker 3: viots from a very young age. And you know, bad
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  Speaker 3: parenting leads to problem children.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean it's it's then it becomes such
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  Speaker 1: a frustration for the whole community and you feel for
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  Speaker 1: those people that are working obviously at those service stations
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  Speaker 1: where you're just trying to get your job done and
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  Speaker 1: you're having to deal with that type of thing over
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  Speaker 1: the night.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and our youth operation is targeting those children who
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  Speaker 3: are at risk of committing crimes. We're making referrals to education,
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  Speaker 3: making referrals to territory families. There is help out there
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  Speaker 3: for people, including for families. But as I say, most
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  Speaker 3: of these children, in fact all of them have been
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  Speaker 3: exposed to domestic violence from a very young age.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Mata, I want to go through these crime
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  Speaker 1: statistics and take a look at how things are tracking
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  Speaker 1: around Darwin at the moment. Obviously, it refers to that
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  Speaker 1: period of the first of the eighth twenty nineteen to
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  Speaker 1: the thirty first of the seventh twenty twenty, comparing it
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  Speaker 1: then to the first of the eighth twenty twenty right
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  Speaker 1: up until the thirty first of the seventh twenty twenty one.
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  Speaker 1: So quite you know, quite the gap in terms of
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  Speaker 1: in terms of those comparisons, but things like things like
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  Speaker 1: the housebreak ins have gone down quite significantly by the
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  Speaker 1: look of it around Darwin in the latest crime stats.
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  Speaker 1: Same as those motor vehicle thiefs. But unfortunately, then when
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  Speaker 1: you go across to things like assault and domestic violence
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  Speaker 1: related assault, well, our assaults have gone up thirty three percent,
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  Speaker 1: domestic violence related assaults up fifty one percent. Does that
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  Speaker 1: refer to that period of time through COVID wire locked down?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, it does.
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  Speaker 3: You'll remember the early stages of COVID in March, April, May,
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  Speaker 3: June last year we had very very low assault rates
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  Speaker 3: and they are counted in the previous year's stats. And
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  Speaker 3: then you know, job keeper, job seeker, everything opening up July, August, September,
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  Speaker 3: October last year we had very high stats. So we're
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  Speaker 3: comparing low stats to high stats. But that doesn't take
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  Speaker 3: away from the fact that people are being assaulted in
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  Speaker 3: a family environment and it's a disgraceful act.
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  Speaker 2: It's a crime.
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  Speaker 3: And if you know, just if you're a victim in
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  Speaker 3: those circumstances, get help, and we're more than happy to
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  Speaker 3: point you in the right direction.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because even when you then go across to Palmerston,
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  Speaker 1: you know, domestic violence related assaults up sixty two percent,
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  Speaker 1: and then the alcohol related assaults up fifty two percent,
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  Speaker 1: it does seem like a really big jump in some cases.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Katie, it does. But I will say in terms
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  Speaker 3: of Palmerston, it is coming down. Like three months ago
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  Speaker 3: we were reporting a sixty percent increase and now we're
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  Speaker 3: of total assaults and now we're reporting a thirty five
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  Speaker 3: percent increase, sorry, a thirty percent increase, so it is
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  Speaker 3: coming down.
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  Speaker 2: There's really only three.
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  Speaker 3: Months that affect the crime figures, so they don't change radically.
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  Speaker 3: What the months that do affect is what happened last month,
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  Speaker 3: what happened thirteen months ago, because that now is not
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  Speaker 3: in the current year's stats, it's in the previous year's stats,
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  Speaker 3: and what happened twenty five months ago, because that then
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  Speaker 3: falls off the previous year's stats. So they don't change
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  Speaker 3: radically from month to month.
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  Speaker 1: If that makes sense well, and it sort of seems
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  Speaker 1: to me as well, is that while the stats are
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  Speaker 1: obviously important and it is a good thing for us
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  Speaker 1: to take a look at each month, the police are
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  Speaker 1: more dealing with what goes on each and every week,
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  Speaker 1: and you're sort of having to be quite active and
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  Speaker 1: change your tax I'm assuming based on what's happening out
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  Speaker 1: on the street, you know, this week, rather than what
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  Speaker 1: happened a year ago.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: Look, we look at recidivis, defenders, crime series, crime hotspots,
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  Speaker 3: and prevention activity. They are our four key drivers and
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  Speaker 3: what happened twenty five months ago doesn't really affect the
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  Speaker 3: way that we guide and manage our business.
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  Speaker 1: Now, what are some of the areas of concern or
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  Speaker 1: areas that you're quite focused on at this point in time.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think.
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  Speaker 3: Assaults and particularly domestic violence. Assaults is an area that
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  Speaker 3: we need to get better at. Again, the figures will
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  Speaker 3: come down because of what happened, you know, eight nine,
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  Speaker 3: ten months ago. But having said that, we know that
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  Speaker 3: domestic violence. All of our youth offenders are exposed to
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  Speaker 3: domestic violence. So it's a cyclic thing where you know,
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  Speaker 3: in terms of prevention, we need to target the early
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  Speaker 3: intervention stages and quite frankly that's domestic violence.
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  Speaker 1: And with those with some of the youth stuff. I
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  Speaker 1: know that obviously there has been quite a bit of
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  Speaker 1: work going in recent months and it sort of it
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  Speaker 1: does seem to flare up at different times, and I
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  Speaker 1: know that even you know, over recent weeks it has
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  Speaker 1: been something that we've all sort of been talking about
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  Speaker 1: again because there's been different businesses that have been you know,
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  Speaker 1: been broken into. So so is it a case then
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  Speaker 1: where you sort of have to put a bit more
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  Speaker 1: focus onto that area.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Katie.
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  Speaker 3: Look, you know the stats show that crime property crime
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  Speaker 3: has come down, but again, you know, the stats are
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  Speaker 3: all over the place at the moment. So but what
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  Speaker 3: I will say is some of these crimes are very
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  Speaker 3: very prominent. You know, they're featured in social media. People
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  Speaker 3: there's CCTV footage of some of these incidents, and whether
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  Speaker 3: there's more or.
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  Speaker 2: Less of them is irrelevant.
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  Speaker 3: People see what they see and that's that's how they
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  Speaker 3: gauge their perceptions of crime.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and all they want is to really not
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  Speaker 1: have to be worrying about it. And we all understand
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  Speaker 1: though that you know that we're never going to be
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  Speaker 1: able to totally cut all crime out, and we know
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  Speaker 1: that the police work incredibly hard getting out there to
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  Speaker 1: try and and apprehend those youths and even adults when
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  Speaker 1: they're doing the wrong thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And look, there'll probably be some more media releases
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  Speaker 3: later in the day right of some positive outcomes over
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  Speaker 3: the weekend.
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  Speaker 2: What I will say is that we act quickly.
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  Speaker 3: To target crime and criminal offenders, apprehend the offenders and
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  Speaker 3: again it's about intervening and interdicting before the offenders enter
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  Speaker 3: into a crime spiral where crime can get out of control.
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  Speaker 1: That was there some break ins or something over the weekend,
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  Speaker 1: but you guys are able to apprehend them quickly or.
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  Speaker 2: There were some incidents.
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  Speaker 3: So there weren't a lot of breakings over the weekend,
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  Speaker 3: but there were some incidents that we're following up and
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  Speaker 3: we've got some really good leads on and there were
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  Speaker 3: some youth warrest over the weekend, so we'll try and
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  Speaker 3: get them out into the community later in the day.
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  Speaker 1: Well, we'll keep a close eye on that. Matt hollandby
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  Speaker 1: the Commander of Darwin and Road Policing. Good to catch
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  Speaker 1: up with you this mon morning.
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  Speaker 2: Which your pleasure. Thank you, Katie, thank you