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Police Association Senior Vice President Lisa Bayliss on the Palmerston Police Shooting · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, obviously yesterday it was a pretty crazy day on
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: air as we started to hear details emerge from that
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: critical incident that was unfolding out in Palmerston. We now
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: know that a man's in a critical condition in the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Royal Darwin Hospital after that police shooting in the Gray
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Park on Tuesday morning. Now joining me on the line
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  Speaker 1: is Lisa Bayless, who is the senior vice president of
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  Speaker 1: the Police Association. Good morning, Lisa, Good morning Katie. Lisa. Firstly,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: what are you able to tell us from that incident yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: Look, obviously it's a current police investigation, but look, I
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  Speaker 2: just want to say, just on behalf of the police
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  Speaker 2: that we're actually very very lucky that our members were
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: seriously or critically injured during this incident, and to be
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  Speaker 2: honest with this, we're grateful they able to go home
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  Speaker 2: and be with their families after protecting the community from
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  Speaker 2: what was a very dangerous situation of an other armed
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  Speaker 2: man and certain so.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: From your perspective, it was an incredibly dangerous situation for
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yes, Look, an unfortunately system another example of the
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  Speaker 2: dangerous situations that police are faced with every day, and
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  Speaker 2: obviously We're confident our members that they follow their training
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  Speaker 2: and we support them one hundred percent when unfortunately this
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: circumstances occur. But we see, we see it from the
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: point of view that this tragic situation could have been
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  Speaker 2: far worse.
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  Speaker 1: Lisa, how many police officers were there when this incident unfolded?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Look, there was two police that had attended and and
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  Speaker 2: like you know, like I said, it was a very
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: difficult situation. The information is is that he was allegedly
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: armed with a with a weapon, a sphere, and he
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  Speaker 2: confronted the police.
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  Speaker 1: And what unit were the officers from? Were they general
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: duties officers?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Yep, general duties, just doing their their job that they
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: do every day.
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  Speaker 1: I know it must have It must be an incredibly
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  Speaker 1: frightening situation for anybody to be under when there is
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  Speaker 1: somebody who's allegedly armed. So in this instance, what we
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: have been told is that is that this person was
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: allegedly armed with a spear.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Yeh, yeh, that is correct.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, when they were called out, were they of the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: understanding that they've been called out to a domestic violence
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  Speaker 1: incident or do you know what they were what they
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  Speaker 1: were told?
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean Obviously I'm not going to go
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  Speaker 2: into to a lot of the details. I'm not aware
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  Speaker 2: of all the details from the incident, but what I
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: do know is obviously having gone through such a critical
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: incident for the police members, it is very distressing and
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it's a difficult time for them. We've been supporting them
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: throughout this, you know, providing them with advice and obviously
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: just the support they need. Generally, when you have a
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: critical incident response, it's fully investigated by police and there's
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: obviously feeling feeling quite distressed over what's happened.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: How are those officers today.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I haven't actually spoken to today, but you know, having
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  Speaker 2: been through such a difficult situation, it is it's traumatic
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  Speaker 2: for them. Even though you're training for such a situation
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: and you rely on your training, it's still the human
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  Speaker 2: factor of you've been through a critical incident and it
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  Speaker 2: is it's quite traumatic.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Please, do we have any idea if they were experienced officers.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Look again, that's those sort of questions you probably need
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  Speaker 2: to put put through to the police. What I can
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  Speaker 2: tell is that both general duties police officers they've been
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: they weren't on probation or I think they've experienced police
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  Speaker 2: officers in that sense, and they were confronted with a
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  Speaker 2: very difficult situation and a lot on their training. And
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  Speaker 2: I think as a community we're lucky that we didn't
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  Speaker 2: have two police that didn't go home to their families yesterday, Liza.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I know there has been discussion in the community for
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: quite a while about senior officers leaving the force, that
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  Speaker 1: loss of real experience within the Northern Territory Police Force
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and the recruitment obviously of new younger people who aren't
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: as experienced obviously by the number of years that they've
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  Speaker 1: spent within the force. Have we got a situation here
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: where people in some instances are not being adequately trained. Oh.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Look, in terms of our training, all our police officers,
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  Speaker 2: they spend six months at the Police College. They are
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: thoroughly trained in law, policy, procedure, the defensive tactics, farms training,
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  Speaker 2: dealing with critical incidents. That the training is second to
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  Speaker 2: none in the country. The norm Churchary police. We punch
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: far beyond our weight. I think we're very lucky in
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  Speaker 2: that sense. But in terms of resourcing, as we always so,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: we could always do with more police. It is there
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: are circumstances where not having enough resources does hurt us,
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  Speaker 2: but this situation was not one of them. The members
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  Speaker 2: were actually confronted with just a very difficult, a very
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  Speaker 2: difficult and dangerous incident, and they've relied on their training
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  Speaker 2: and they did the best thing they could in the situation.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, how heavily would it have come into their minds
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  Speaker 1: as well that this incident was unfolding incredibly close to
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  Speaker 1: the school.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think there was there was time to actually
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  Speaker 2: to even deal with that situation. They were confronted by
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  Speaker 2: like a very you know, a very difficult situation, and
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  Speaker 2: if they hadn't have acted when they did, they potentially
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  Speaker 2: we could have had two police officers that I didn't
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  Speaker 2: go home to their family.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Lisa, I really appreciate your time this morning. I know
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  Speaker 1: it's a difficult conversation for us to have because there
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: is a lot that we can't discuss, you know, and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: because this is still a very live investing gation. So
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: for having your chat with us.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: No, thank you, Katie, thank you