Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy says his top priorities are creating a safer community and making offenders accountable for crime

Transcript

Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy says his top priorities are creating a safer community and making offenders accountable for crime · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An announcement yesterday that the Northern Territory Police are going
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to offer twenty thousand dollars in relocation bonuses in an
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: effort to recruit officers to the Northern Territory. Joining me
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in the studio to tell us a little bit more
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: about the announcement is the Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, good morning to your listeners.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Measure now,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Acting Commissioner, how will this work.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: So at the moment, obviously, recruitment across Australia with law
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: enforcements very competitive. There's employment rates obviously post COVID at
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: challenging as well. We're quite lucky in the territory. We
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: still attract a cohort to fill our recruit squads. But
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: we want to want more police. We want more people
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to come and join our ranks in the Northern Territory Police.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: So to do that we need to be really competitive
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: and we need to offer more incentives. We're really handsomely
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: remunerated with salary. We've got free housing, either free housing
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: or housing alloune, which basically outweighs a lot of other
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: jurisdictions as well, which is quite attractive for the territory.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But to get people to the territory. Previously it was
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: about a five thousand to eight thousand dollars grant, which
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: sometimes is not enough for a person to relocate with
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: their family. So we're going to increase that to twenty
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars and we're exploring how that's going to look
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: because I'd rather get an invoice in rather than someone
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: being out of pocket because a young person or a
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: young couple might I'll be able to affworard fifteen thousand
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: dollars in a movement. So we want to work through
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: that process now. But basically that decision is effective immediately.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: And I mean if it meant that somebody could move
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: from into state, or even could they move from somewhere
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: like New Zealand.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. We've just had a ten officers sworn in and
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the accelerated recruit so officers that have served across law
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: enforcement in Australia New Zealand got sworn in a couple
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: of weeks ago. A few New Zealander is there.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you sort of think to yourself, you know,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: if we can get people from other states or from
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: somewhere like New Zealand. Surely that would be a good thing,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: and that twenty thousand dollars does seem to be It
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: seems to be generous, but it needs to be I
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: think at this point to try to entice people to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory rather than some of those other states.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, like the different law enforcement, different lens, diversity
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: in thought, getting exposure that senior leadership from other experiences
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: across law enforcement, it's going to be really available to
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the territory. Equally is having territorians apply for the job too,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So we usually have a pretty high number of Territorians
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that get recruited. So I order all territorians you want
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: to join the police force, the fire service, the emergency service,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: put an application in, come join the ranks and continue
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: to make a difference in the community safe.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Is there any kind of bonus for them? Then if
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: they're relocating, let's say from Alice Springs to Darwit, that
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: same applies.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: So if they move. And obviously we're moving our posture
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: around recruitment for deployment out of the college. So historically
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: everyone out of the college went to Catherine Tenant and
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: allis the next squad graduating a nine June will do that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: They go twenty to Ours Springs as thirteen to Catherine
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: and two to Tenant Creek. Squad one fifty one will
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: be a mixed so the staff will the instructing staff
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: will talk to the crew there and probably look at
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: fifty percent into Darwin so he can put some more
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: resourcing to Darwin to increase policing operations here. The Squad
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: one fifty two is the accelerated recruits, So there's nine
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Indolas Springs and one on Rain in Darwin. So that's
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: your senior officers from around other jurisdictions.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: And I know one of the other things that's been
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: raised previously is that for some of those new recruits,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: having to spend that time out Bush could be seen
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: as a bit of a deterrent. Some people love going
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: out and love the idea of remote policing, but others
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: it might be a deterrent, particularly if it's somebody with
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the young family. Let's say, are you looking at things
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: like that as well to maybe try to make it
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: more attractive for people to join the force.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I've spoken to people who wanted to apply for constable,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: but they haven't because of that very reason. They've got
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to consider spousal employment. They've got health needs for family
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: members and the education for young kids. So we need
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to be flexible and we need to apply some thinking
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: to say, when's the right time for you to serve
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: the community in a remote location. It might be when
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the kids are at a certain age before primary school,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: it might be after they finished school. So I think
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: we can't be set in our thinking too much. We
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: need to be flexible with the workforce to say, you know,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: we want people to go out Bush, we want people
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: to go and serve the northern territory, but there is
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: a time and a need that they need to remain
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: in Darwin too, look after their lives and their family
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, previously on the show, the Chief Minister had
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: told us that there was a large number of officers
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: on leave. Now she'd said that that number was in
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the hundreds. Commissioner, how many officers are on leave or
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: do you have an idea of that number and are
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: you making some efforts to get them back.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's probably a couple of layers there. So
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: we've got any one time about between two hundred and
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: fifty and three hundred and fifty officers on recreational long
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: service leave. That's well deserved leave because their officers are
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: working tirelessly and very hard and they need a break.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: We've obviously had a backlog from COVID as well, so
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: we're actually allowing people to take their leave so they
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: can actually do some of the travel they had canceled
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: during COVID. A lot of leave was canceled because of
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the demand on the police force, were border controls and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: other operations during COVID meeting normal police demand. So on
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: top of that, we've got over one hundred officers who
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: are on long leave, which is an access to sick leave,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: which is either could be psychological or physical injury. So
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: there's a list being managed through the executive so contacts
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: made with them and the most appropriate way. Some of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: those officers won't be returning. They just can't come back
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: to policing. Some will through rehabilitation and that physical side,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: but there's work underway to try and get people back
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: to work that we can. In that cohord of over
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: one hundred. We're going to announce the well baying strategy
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: this month. We've had some significant work in our well
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Banning strategy. It's about promoting, supporting, protecting our people right
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: through from recruitment stage, through the workforce and actually transitioning
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: out of policing. So if someone can't be a police
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: officer for the trauma they've seen through their servers, then
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: we can support them in a pathway to go to
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: another form of employment right their CV. We work with
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Fordham Australia as well, incredible work. So we're really investing
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: in the well being strategy. So that will be announced
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: in Dawen next week and then other springs on the
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: twenty fourth.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And is there a bit of room for flexibility there?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I mean for some of those hundred people that are
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: on long leave, particularly if it's maybe for mental health
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: reasons or there's certain elements of the job that you know,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know. But let's say somebody has been a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: traffic officer and they've seen some extreme trauma, or somebody's
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: worked in the area of domestic violence. Could there be
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: an opportunity for their role to be modified or for
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: them to change their job so that you're able to
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: get that experience and get them back into the force
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: but be utilized in a different way.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, so if there's certain harms and you're right, we
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: see lots of trauma road policing. Last year we saw
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: fifty two road deaths, twelve were pedestrians. You know, we've
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: seen an average of forty people die on the roads
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: in across the territory, which is a huge number of
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: people for a small population, and up to five hundred
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: serious crash injuries. This week is National Road Safety Week,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: so it's a really important reminder to all road users
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  Speaker 2: to take care on the roads, adhere to the you
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: know what the fatal five are. Make sure your vehicle safe,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: make sure you drive to conditions, make sure you're not
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: affected by any substances. Don't be distracted through your mobile phone,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: don't speed, were your seat belt, all the really fundamental
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: basics to drive to survive. So people that see trauma
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: police officer at sea trauma, it may not impact them
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: straight away. It could be a number of issues. It
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: could be the domestic violence, it could be infant death.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, we have a responsibility as an employer
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: to make sure we look after and care for our
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: people and place him in a location that they can
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: be supported on a return to work.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Now, on that I mean between two hundred and fifty
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: obviously on long service and recreational leave, one hundred on
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: long leave. It's a big number for you to be
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: juggling in terms of keeping your workforce agile and making
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: sure that there are enough police officers on the streets
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to sort of meet the demand that all the community's expectations.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and that comes down to the management teams.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: So there are thresholds in place about how many ranks
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: and how many officers can be away in command. So
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: it's not like there's two hundred away from Darwin. It's
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: equally spread across all the commands across the territory, so
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: it's managed so we've always got their response capability across
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: in Oldthern territory.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Now, my understanding is that there are some officers who've
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: maybe been on discipline re leave as well. I'm not
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: expecting you to go into any detail on that, but
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: are you looking at bringing any of those people back.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a conversation. I've actually spoken to Lisa Balas today.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: So there are officers that are subjected to directed leave
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: or maybe suspended. So we're working through getting more tribunal
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: chairs appointed so we can move through some of these
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: that have been maybe delayed or a bit long. So
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  Speaker 2: we want to get officers back on deck to do
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: their job, what they want to do, what they're employed
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: to do. So it is. And the other thing we're
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: doing is a discipline review, So we want to move
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: from a disciplinary framework, a punitive sort of direction, to
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: a performance management one. When there is serious breaches of
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: discipline or criminal acts, that's a different consideration. But there's
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: a lot, a lot of the probably dispar reactions that
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: could be moved into performance management and that well being space.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: So it's a bit a change in direction, a bit
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: of change in thinking, but that's a work in progress
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: at the moment.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about those issues that we're facing around
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Around crime. It has become a massive
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: concern for a lot of territorians. I know that, you
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: know that, and certainly it's not a point that's lost
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: on our police officers who have to go out to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: those incidents every single day. But there has been four
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: stabbings this year, those four lives lost. Last week we
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: had twenty nine cars stolen and more than thirty break ins.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Massive concerns of course around domestic violence. There are a
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: lot of issues that the Northern Territory Police are dealing with.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: What's your biggest priorities as the acting Police Commissioner Because
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of people have felt that that community safety
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: has been lost and their sense of safety on the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: streets or going about their daily lives has been lost.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: So I guess what reassurance can you sort of give
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory community that do you hit the ground
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: running and what are your priorities?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: I think the main priority is a safe Northern Territory
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: and looking after the citizens and suppressing crime and holding
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: those people accountable for committing crime to the court. Hit
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: the nail on the head. Our police officers work tirelessly
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: and very hard. We are part of the community. When
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: we see people get hurt or killed, or their house
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: is broken into, or their second largest that' set being
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: their motivehicle stolen, that hurts us. So we do everything
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: we can. We've got our detectives working hard. We see
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the results from Viper and tried it. We've seen the
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: swift results overnight from Alice Springs and the style of
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: motor vehicle through the use of drones, using smarter techniques,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: policing techniques to detect, defending, prevent it and actually action
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: it and arrest people who are responsible and put them
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: before the court. The courts are very busy, you know.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: We're consistently working with Matt Valley to work through their
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: correctional space as well, because there's a lot of people
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: being remanded under the new provisions of the law with
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: the knives and the edge and the harm to community.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: So we'll do everything we can. So the main thing
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: is is keeping the community safe, listening to what the
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: community needs and understanding what the problem is and addressing it.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Not just as a policing agency like we will always
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: enforce on law and arrest people who do the wrong thing.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And it actually sounds as though as well some of
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: those staffing issues if you can get to the bottom
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: of those and make sure that you've got enough police
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: on the ground doing their job, that that will help also.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And the other aspect we're looking at is,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: you know, we've talked about the separations across the Northern
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Terretiary Police of around four hundred. It's a really high
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: attrition rate in the last three years. So I'm asking
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: for those officers who want to return to the Northern
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Territory Police to come back to our ranks. Let us
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: know if you're interested. I'm working with the association now
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: about being flexible about reappointing to certain ranks without disenfranchising
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: or not allowing obviously opportunity for those officers in our
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: ranks that are going to be sergeants and senior sergeants
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: and superintendent. So we're just working through that at the moment.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: But to bring someone who's only left twelve months ago
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: as a senior sergeant back into the ranks as critical
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: for leadership. They've got a wealth of knowledge, We've invested
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: and then we've trained them. They've been outside the force.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: We want them to come back. We want constables to
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: come back. So we're just extending an imitation. If you're
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: interested in coming back to the Northern Churchy Police, please
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: let us know.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I think that there probably are some listening
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: this morning who might think to themselves that you know
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: definitely are Yeah, you sound as though you are making
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: sure that that work is getting underway to try and
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: bring some of those people back, which I hope is
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: a good thing. Now, I just want to talk about
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: some of these young gangs that we seem to have
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: around the place at the moment, some of them sharing
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: this information on social media. I don't actually want to
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: name them because I don't think that they deserve that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: kind of notoriety or publicity. But we know, I think
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: most of us know the group that I'm talking about.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: What work are the police undertaking to get control of
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: those people who seem to sort of have no respect
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: for anyone in the community all their property at the moment.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: So there's obviously a lot of engagement too. And some
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: of these young people are in community in Doe and
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: they're also in communities outside of Dowen. Our remote police
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: are working tirelessly to monitor, target manage. Some are on bail.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: We've locked up at least ten people responsible with some
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of the vehicle thefts that are in custody, so we're
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: managing that network. And obviously in some of these cohorts
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: we see there might be a person well known to
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: police and there might be four followers, So we need
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: to intervene with the followers to correct their behavior and
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: get them back out of the thinking about crimes. Okay,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: but I think the bigger picture rests with other government
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: departments as well, like education and that purpose in community
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: because if they're bored, they're looking for something to do,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: they go steal a car and they come and say,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: let's get in a pursuit with police. Really dangerous activity
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: and they brag about it on social media, which just
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: manifests into one upmanship, not just solely in the territory
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: but across Northern Australia.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Now what about like if you see honestly some of
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the stuff that gets shared on TikTok and that that
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: even you know, our our own kids are saying that
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: these people are sharing. If they see that kind of stuff,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: obviously reporting it because it's criminal behavior. But do we
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: need to get in contact with the Northern Territory Police
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: if we're seeing posts where people are going, oh, I'm
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: going on a bend or I'm going to be stealing
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: cars tonight.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, that's really good for our intelligence holdings and actions.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: So we had that very specific across the weekend where
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: we know the origin of the message and then we
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: can target it and do the prevention and disruption. There's
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: also the e Safety Commissioner, So when there's harmful content
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: published that may involve children, you can report directly to
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: the Safety Commissioner. But if you report to us, we've
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: got some We've got some contacts as well, So the
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: e Safety Commissioner can compel certain social media sites to
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: take down material if it's halpful to the public.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Now, this discussion around knives and edged weapons, we know
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: that there has been talk about those wands that are
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: being used in places like Queensland. You raised this last week.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Where are these discussions at Okay?
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: So at the moment, the report's being finalized for me
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: to assess and review. So we two officers travel to
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Brisbane and engage with the Queensland Police to understand how
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: they operate, the intent, the legislation, the policy setting, the equipment.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: So they've come back and applying that to the Northern territory,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: thinking about how we can apply that across the territory.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: What we saw in Queensland it was a two year pilot.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: I've spoken to the Deputy commission over there. It was
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: a success. They've just implemented into the legislation as a
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: permanent procedure really in party precincts and high harm activity areas,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: which has seen a downturn in presentation of edge weapons,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: So it's actually been a disruptor rather than an arrestor.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: So the people know that they can't go into certain
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: areas because I know police will target them or wan
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: them to detect if they've got some sort of concealed weapon.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: So it's actually making a safer environment, which is really
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: a really good outcome. So we want to apply that
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: thinking the territory.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: So is it something that we need legislative change for
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: or is it something that you could do, like we
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: could do a bit of a trial for.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Well, at this stage there'll have to be some legistim Yeah,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: and I've spoken to the minister. There's an appetite to
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: explore this further, so I'll just wait for my brief
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: then I'll engage with the Police Minister and we'll go
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: from there.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I've got to say, Acting Commissioner, it sounds as
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: though you have certainly hit the ground running. What would
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: like what would you say your main priorities are going
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: to be over the next well period of time. I
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: guess that whole recruitment process is underway and we don't
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: know who the next Northern Territory Police Commissioner is, but
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I know that you have put your hand up and
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you have certainly hit the ground running. What are your
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: main priorities at this.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Point addressing crime issues across the Northern Territory. I'm looking
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: at obviously proactive measures to make sure territorians are and
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: feel safe, uniting a police force and uniting a community
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: with the police force to make a difference, continue to
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: look at new ideas to basically we need to change
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: the dynamic in the territory from what we're living and
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: feeling at the moment. Because people are concerned, so we
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: need to where leaders in this field we can make
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: a difference, and we will make a difference.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, and I've
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: got to say, you know, over recent weeks and months,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: there has been a lot of us feeling pretty broken hearted.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say about the way that
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the territory is and some of the crime issues that
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: we've seen. But you have certainly given us a bit
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: of hope this morning, I think. So. I appreciate your
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: time and really appreciate you coming in and taking the
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: time to answer all those those questions. But before I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: let you go, I can't not mention that it is
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: where orange Wednesday as well. I've got a bit of
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: orange on. You've got to have your uniform on, of course,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: but you have got orange on the uniform of course.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Oh that's great. Look. It's a big shout out to
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: all our volunteers who you know National Volunteer Week as well,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: but a big shout out to our Northern Territory Fire
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: and Emergency Services. We've got five hundred volunteers who work tirelessly,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: give up their own time effort to make the community
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: say for and respond when people need help.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: So well done, good on you, good stuff. Thanks so
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: much for your time this morning. The Acting Police Commissioner,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Michael Murphy