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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio right now is Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory Police Commander for Darwin and Road Policing, Matt hollandb
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning cheer listeners.
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  Speaker 3: Now, well, can you to have a chat to you
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  Speaker 3: this morning.
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  Speaker 1: We had different people get in contact with us yesterday
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  Speaker 1: about I think you call it general bad behavior from
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  Speaker 1: some kids running a bit of a market around the city.
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  Speaker 1: We spoke to businessman Jason Hannah. We also had other
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  Speaker 1: callers ring through and say that they've seen an increase
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  Speaker 1: in the number of youths not necessarily breaking the law,
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  Speaker 1: but just behaving badly I think in our CBD.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, look, it has come to our attention over
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  Speaker 2: the last few weeks. Obviously there was some vision on
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  Speaker 2: television last night which was a couple of weeks old.
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  Speaker 2: But there are groups of young kids, you know, eleven, twelve,
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  Speaker 2: thirteen that are coming into the CBD and behaving naughty
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  Speaker 2: is probably a good way of putting it. One of
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  Speaker 2: the things that when it crosses over into a policing
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  Speaker 2: issue is at some of the service stations and some
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  Speaker 2: of the twenty four to seven corner stores, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a child will buy a drink and a couple of
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  Speaker 2: other children will steal a drink and a packet of
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  Speaker 2: chips and run out the door. And so it's you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's low level crime, but it's still a concern and
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to downplay it at all. It is
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  Speaker 2: bad behavior.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and this is the thing.
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  Speaker 1: I guess it sort of seems like it's really hard
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  Speaker 1: at the moment within the community because it's not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: behavior where the police, you know, need to.
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  Speaker 3: Step in and arrest someone.
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  Speaker 1: But to give you an example, our general manager here
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  Speaker 1: at the radio station last week was it Uncle Sam's
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  Speaker 1: and had a group of three teenagers you know, threatening
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  Speaker 1: and being abusive inside. He asked them to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to sort of calm down. It ended up in a
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  Speaker 1: situation where one of them was threatening to stab him.
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  Speaker 1: So it's that kind of behavior where it's like, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: nobody got stabbed, but it's it feels really dangerous, and
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  Speaker 1: I guess you know, it makes people feel incredibly uncomfortable. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, don't shy away from that. And you know, when
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  Speaker 2: crimes occur, we encourage people to report them and we'll
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  Speaker 2: take action. And you know, places like Uncle Sam's and
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  Speaker 2: the service stations have have first class CCTV, so it's
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  Speaker 2: not hard for us to identify who the offenders are.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, look, it is bad behavior and it's sort
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  Speaker 2: of a pack mentality. Like an individual child by themselves
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  Speaker 2: is probably quite well behaved, but when when they get
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  Speaker 2: into a group, they adopt the pac mentality and that's
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  Speaker 2: when things can go pair shaped.
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  Speaker 1: So what do we do, Like, if you know, if
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  Speaker 1: you've got kids like on the street, who are you know,
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  Speaker 1: picking up menus like we've seen in that vision, or
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  Speaker 1: you know, if there's if there's women on their scooters
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  Speaker 1: and then they're going over and taking those scooters from
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  Speaker 1: them and throwing them on the ground.
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  Speaker 3: Like, what do we do?
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  Speaker 2: Well, when a crime occurs, it should be reported and
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  Speaker 2: it will be investigated and if there's enough elevents, we
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  Speaker 2: will take action, whether that's diversion or prosecution. But it's
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  Speaker 2: the preventative thing that the preventative space we really need
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  Speaker 2: to get into. And you know, why are those children
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  Speaker 2: on the street. Well, that's a good question. You know,
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  Speaker 2: parents have an obligation to look at LUG look after
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  Speaker 2: their own children in terms of when we find them
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  Speaker 2: on the streets not breaking the law. We'll do reports
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  Speaker 2: to territory families, referrals to territory families, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's a it's a whole of government approach as opposed
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  Speaker 2: to a policing problem. Policing's are the last stop something
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  Speaker 2: has gone wrong somewhere along the line. When when it
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  Speaker 2: becomes solely a policing issue.
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  Speaker 1: What about though, for those businesses who are just kind
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  Speaker 1: of being subjected to really ordinary behavior.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's it's terrible and it shouldn't be tolerated.
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  Speaker 2: And we encourage people to report crimes to the police.
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  Speaker 2: And you will have seen that at some of the
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  Speaker 2: key locations from time to time we put mobile CCTV
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  Speaker 2: there to supplement the business's own CCTV help. And yeah,
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  Speaker 2: we target the youth when they commit crimes.
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  Speaker 1: So at the moment in our city, I know that
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  Speaker 1: there had been a suggestion well to us here at
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  Speaker 1: the station, that maybe there'd been a safe house moved
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  Speaker 1: to Stuart Park and that that was why we were
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  Speaker 1: seeing increased sort of anti social behavior from young people
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  Speaker 1: in the city.
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  Speaker 2: Has that happened, Not that I know of, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: aware of any, but I can say we do know
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  Speaker 2: most of these kids. It's not the same kids all
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  Speaker 2: the time. It varies, but these are the same kids
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  Speaker 2: that or some of them are the same kids that
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  Speaker 2: we know from Casarina and they ride the buses into town.
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  Speaker 2: There are one or two of them that actually live
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  Speaker 2: in the city and so they go meet up and generally,
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  Speaker 2: you know, from time to time exhibit bad behavior.
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  Speaker 1: I guess the thing is it did sort of take
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  Speaker 1: a step we'll well over bad behavior last week when
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  Speaker 1: we caught up with alderman Gary Haslett, who'd been assaulted
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  Speaker 1: at Casuarina. I know that this is now a situation
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  Speaker 1: where it's a matter before the courts, but two thirteen.
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  Speaker 3: Year olds were arrested.
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  Speaker 1: I know there'll be a lot of people listening this
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  Speaker 1: morning who are thinking, Okay, well, sometimes this might sort
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  Speaker 1: of be naughty behavior from kids, but other times it's
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  Speaker 1: going a step further, and what do we sort of
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  Speaker 1: deem or how do we as a community, you know,
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  Speaker 1: battle some of these issues when you know some of
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  Speaker 1: these young people are getting away with naughty behavior and
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  Speaker 1: then taking it a step together.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, escalating, Yeah, and.
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  Speaker 2: Look I won't I won't talk to that particular case,
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  Speaker 2: but in general terms, Yeah, some of the some of
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  Speaker 2: the naughty behavior does escalate to very serious behavior and when,
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  Speaker 2: if and when that occurs, will take very with action.
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  Speaker 2: You know, part of our a key role for us
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  Speaker 2: is to identify crime series, identify hot spots, and identify
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  Speaker 2: recidive as defenders and act quickly to stop or prevent
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  Speaker 2: future crimes. So that's what we do.
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  Speaker 1: So with these young people that are known to the
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  Speaker 1: police around the city at the moment, who aren't behaving, well,
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  Speaker 1: what is the like, what's the action plan?
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  Speaker 2: Well, again, it's about engagement as a first step, engaging
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  Speaker 2: with the youth and engaging with their families and involving
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  Speaker 2: other stakeholders including territory, families and education. I mean, you
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  Speaker 2: know most people say, why aren't these kids at footy
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  Speaker 2: practice or why aren't they doing their homework? So you
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  Speaker 2: know there there are pre empty actions that we can
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  Speaker 2: take and that's that's the space we want to concentrate on.
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  Speaker 3: Is it frustrating for the police at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And look, you know some of these children
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  Speaker 2: have really sad stories, not all of them, some of
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  Speaker 2: them do. And you know, our job is to help
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  Speaker 2: people as opposed to be mean to little children. So
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  Speaker 2: we know, we prefer to help these people, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: at the most extreme helping them is includes arresting them
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  Speaker 2: and taking interdicting before they continue on a crime spreak.
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  Speaker 1: I know last night on Channel nine I saw one
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  Speaker 1: of the ladies who works at caledonas one of the
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  Speaker 1: restaurants in the city. She was saying, please just help us.
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  Speaker 1: Now I think too, you know, in general she was
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  Speaker 1: saying that. I also know that some of those service
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  Speaker 1: station operators have been saying the same thing. I mean, what, like,
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  Speaker 1: how can we as a community try to sort this
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  Speaker 1: issue out where we're you know, saying it's not good
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  Speaker 1: enough and not accepting it, but making sure that it
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  Speaker 1: actually changes in some way.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, it's a whole of government approach that
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  Speaker 2: needs to happen. As I say, policing is the backstop.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, my heart goes out to the victims, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, we should support them as best we can.
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  Speaker 1: To those victims that are feeling you know, pretty deflated,
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  Speaker 1: I think, and wondering what they sort of do to
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  Speaker 1: those business operators in the city that have maybe been
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  Speaker 1: subjected to some of this poor behavior or had their
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  Speaker 1: windows smashed, or to those service station operators who've also
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  Speaker 1: been subjected to some pretty ordinary behavior. I mean, from
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  Speaker 1: a policing perspective, what would you say to them?
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  Speaker 2: Don't stop reporting it, keep reporting it because it does
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  Speaker 2: give us an opportunity to interdict. And you know, when
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  Speaker 2: naughty behavior escalates into criminal behavior, that's where we need
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  Speaker 2: to take swift action, I ad to stop it from
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  Speaker 2: continuing and be to help that individual who's who's not
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  Speaker 2: doing the right thing.
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  Speaker 1: Just to give you, I guess a bit of perspective
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  Speaker 1: as to how our listeners are feeling this morning. We
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  Speaker 1: have just received a message on the text line. It said, Hi, Ktie,
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  Speaker 1: those kids are not being naughty. Some of them are
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  Speaker 1: assaulting people, hurting people, stealing, wrecking people's property, and they're
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  Speaker 1: all known to police. Why are they not in a
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  Speaker 1: secure facility here?
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  Speaker 2: And look, I'll respond to that by saying, some of
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  Speaker 2: them are being naughty, but some of them are also
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  Speaker 2: committing criminal behavior acts criminal acts, and when they do
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  Speaker 2: commit criminal acts, we take action, whether it's youth diversion
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  Speaker 2: or whether it's prosecution. You know, it's a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more difficult to prosecute an eleven twelve year old than
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  Speaker 2: it is an adult. But having said that, we still
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  Speaker 2: go down that path to interdict and stop them from
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  Speaker 2: offending into the future.
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  Speaker 3: I know the police work incredibly hard. I know that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, one of the first things that people say
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  Speaker 1: to us when they contact us about these issues is
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  Speaker 1: that police do it a great job and that they're
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  Speaker 1: doing their best under difficult circumstances. But I know that
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  Speaker 1: in some instances as well, we've had some criticism. I
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  Speaker 1: guess that the police have maybe not attended some of
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  Speaker 1: those locations as quickly as what the victims have hop
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  Speaker 1: for or expected. Is that something that you're sort of
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  Speaker 1: always looking into.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, when I mean, we can't be everywhere all
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  Speaker 2: the time, but we do respond to course for assistance.
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  Speaker 2: We have a grading policy, so you know, our highest
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  Speaker 2: priority is a life saving response where we'll go lights
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  Speaker 2: and sirens and sometimes you know, those things take precedence
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  Speaker 2: over things that can possibly wait, and you know, if
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  Speaker 2: you're a victim, that doesn't help you very much. But
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  Speaker 2: we need to respond to the life saving incidents first,
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  Speaker 2: if that makes sense.
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  Speaker 3: Have we got enough police on the bay?
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's we do the best we can with what
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  Speaker 2: we've got. You know, it's obviously it's an interesting time
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  Speaker 2: with COVID and our resourcing commitments to COVID, but you know,
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  Speaker 2: we put police out on the streets and we respond
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  Speaker 2: as quickly as we can to all respond the reports
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  Speaker 2: that require a police response.
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  Speaker 1: We are going to have to leave it there. Commander
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  Speaker 1: Matt Hollanby, our commander for Darwin Region and Rhoades Policing.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time today.
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  Speaker 2: Always a pleasure.
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  Speaker 3: Codie, Thank you