Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Senior Sergeant Craig Gillis says police will be cracking down on road safety as kids head back to school

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Senior Sergeant Craig Gillis says police will be cracking down on road safety as kids head back to school · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Bit of a change of pace. School is back for
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  Speaker 1: the majority of territory kids tomorrow, some are back Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: I think some are even back today. There will of
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  Speaker 1: course be kids on bikes on foot as well near schools,
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  Speaker 1: and lots of young kids probably heading to school for
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  Speaker 1: the first time. Now joining me on the line is
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  Speaker 1: Senior Sergeant Craig Gillis. Good morning to you, Craig.
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  Speaker 2: Morning catiere go.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, not too bad. Thanks so much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning, Craig, no doubt it's going to be a
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  Speaker 1: busy morning for so many territory families. Well, I think
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  Speaker 1: some are back today even, aren't they.
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  Speaker 2: On most of the school student free days today?
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  Speaker 1: That was what I thought too, So I'm glad that
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  Speaker 1: I haven't accidentally kept my kids at home. Craig, you
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  Speaker 1: don't want.
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  Speaker 2: To be adding to you.
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  Speaker 1: No, that's right. All right. Well, let's we definitely know
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  Speaker 1: they're back tomorrow. So how do the police prepare for
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  Speaker 1: the return of school tomorrow.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to have obviously detection unit camera vans that'll
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  Speaker 2: be out and about in the all as many school
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  Speaker 2: zones as we can cover during the peak drop off periods,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously all the available traffic members will be there,
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  Speaker 2: the school based police will be keeping eye on teams
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  Speaker 2: and also a general duty. So overall that's a whole
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  Speaker 2: of agency sort of operation where we just want to
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  Speaker 2: ensure that the first day of school for the kids
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  Speaker 2: is a pleasant one. Yeah, well and so one obviously.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely and some of them, you know, going there for
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  Speaker 1: the first time, and they're all excited and can sort
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  Speaker 1: of step on the road and things like that when
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  Speaker 1: they're not supposed to, and if you're not driving slowly
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  Speaker 1: and carefully, it can have a catastrophic impact.
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  Speaker 2: No, that's exactly are we are strivers is obviously do
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  Speaker 2: the speed limit and it doesn't hurt the go a
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  Speaker 2: little bit slower than forty because, as you said, this
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  Speaker 2: is the first time for some of these kids, they're
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  Speaker 2: either going to be excited to be going to school
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  Speaker 2: or a little bit distressed from leaving their parents. And
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  Speaker 2: that their age, obviously they wouldn't have developed any road
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  Speaker 2: sense or anything like that. And just be ware the
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  Speaker 2: little tackle's going to run out between park cars and
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  Speaker 2: as they go like and they definitely don't be on
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  Speaker 2: your phone and be vigilant of your surroundings and just
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  Speaker 2: ensure that everybody has a good first day of school.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, hey Craig, I know that you said that there's
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  Speaker 1: going to be a lot of police out in force obviously,
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  Speaker 1: but will there be sort of additional police on the
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  Speaker 1: roads or will there be specific patrols around different school areas.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, the traffic members obviously are because that's a
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  Speaker 2: call or road safety. They'll be meeting sure and they're
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  Speaker 2: around obviously, we've got a finite resources in schools, but
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  Speaker 2: during the ship like all day, they'll be going from
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  Speaker 2: school zone to school zone, just making sure everybody's in check,
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  Speaker 2: and just are reminder for people who are new to
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  Speaker 2: the territory or tourists that our school zone is actually
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  Speaker 2: run all day. It's not like down South, but they're
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  Speaker 2: only on for an hour and a half in the
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  Speaker 2: morning and the same in the afternoon, So be aware,
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  Speaker 2: look after the signposts and we will be out. And
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  Speaker 2: we do have a zero tolerance approach to school zones
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  Speaker 2: obviously because of the safety of the poor kids and
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  Speaker 2: the vulnerable uses. So if you do speed, you can
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  Speaker 2: expect to get infringement.
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  Speaker 1: Now. I know there's obviously lots of advice for those
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  Speaker 1: people that are on the roads have you got any
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  Speaker 1: advice for parents as well as they're sort of sending
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  Speaker 1: their kids off to school for the first time when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to that road safety, because I know for
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  Speaker 1: some of us, you know, when you it's fine when
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  Speaker 1: you're dropping them to school and you're dropping them right
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  Speaker 1: there at the you know, at the school drop off zone,
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  Speaker 1: but if they're walking home or if they're riding home,
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  Speaker 1: your heart sort of you know, outside your body worrying
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  Speaker 1: about them in a lot of ways. Are there certain
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  Speaker 1: things that we should sort of be making sure that
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  Speaker 1: we're telling our kids, Oh, you just.
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  Speaker 2: Wine, I'm making an obit where they all strange is
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  Speaker 2: danger and things like that. And most children nowadays have
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  Speaker 2: got mobile phones and things like that. They've just got
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  Speaker 2: to be aware of it surrounding and obviously from the
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  Speaker 2: road safety point of view, make sure you concentrate when
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  Speaker 2: they and across the road, do the old look right,
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  Speaker 2: look left, look right again type things, and get err
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  Speaker 2: on the side of caution, which is easy for us
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  Speaker 2: to say that. And I'll go through one ear and
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  Speaker 2: out the other. And ideally what sort of want your
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  Speaker 2: children traveling numbers, if you know what I mean. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: hopefully they've got some mates down the street that they
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  Speaker 2: can walk or ride to school with. And if on
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  Speaker 2: their push bikes, make sure they've got the helmets on
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  Speaker 2: and pay attention to the cars and all that around them,
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  Speaker 2: and watch out for vehicles backing out and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, good advice, Craig. Before I let you go, I
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  Speaker 1: know that the Northern Territory has very sadly recorded its
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  Speaker 1: first fatality for the year. Are police ramping up the
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  Speaker 1: focus on road safety this year after fifty two lives
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  Speaker 1: were lost last year?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I definitely. What we found is there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of alcohol and drugs involved. That's the anecdotal evidence
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  Speaker 2: at the moment. So we are going to increase our
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  Speaker 2: amount of random drug testing and things like that. So
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  Speaker 2: you get pulled up by police, be aware that you
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  Speaker 2: might be asked to supply a sample of saliva and
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  Speaker 2: if you do use a list of substances, they can
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  Speaker 2: be in your system for a couple of days. So
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  Speaker 2: obviously don't drive with any prohibitive drugs. And we are
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  Speaker 2: going to be doing a lot more large scale RBTs
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  Speaker 2: and things like that all around the territory, So the
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  Speaker 2: chances are getting pulled over in court they're going to
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  Speaker 2: go up.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Senior Sergeant Craig Gillis, I really appreciate your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning, and yeah, thanks so much for the advice
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  Speaker 1: for parents and the advice for motorists. Let's hope that
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  Speaker 1: it is a really safe first day back at school
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  Speaker 1: for all the Northern Territories kids tomorrow.
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  Speaker 2: I'm good to have a great day you.
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  Speaker 1: Too, Craig. Thanks mate,