Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst says they're investigating links to Darwin crime and the Wadeye community

Transcript

NT Police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst says they're investigating links to Darwin crime and the Wadeye community · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio is the Northern Territories
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Assistant Police Commissioner, Travis Worst. Good morning to you, Travis,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Morning Katie.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: How are you very well?
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Now? It has been a pretty big week, you'd have
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to say for our Northern Territory Police. We know that
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: there's been quite a lot going on. Well, I guess
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: they're always the issue. Guys are always busy, but that
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: unrest in the community of what Air unfortunately continues. Yesterday
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: issuing a statement that since the first of May, police
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: have responded to a number of community disturbances, resulting in
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  Speaker 1: a total of thirteen arrests, six notices to appear being issued,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: in three youths being diverted. How serious is this issue
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  Speaker 1: out in what Air at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: Look, it's extremely serious because the harm it's been caused
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: to that community. And it's not just about the harm
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: that we are hearing reported in the news, but it's
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  Speaker 2: more about the displacement it's causing for those that aren't
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: involved in the in the unrest, the women and the children,
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  Speaker 2: the elderly, those that aren't involved at all, that have
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  Speaker 2: safety against for living in their own community, and a
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  Speaker 2: lot of those people I'm aware of being displaced from
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  Speaker 2: within what Air and have actually moved out to our stations.
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  Speaker 2: Some have actually chosen to move out of the community altogether,
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  Speaker 2: whether they've moved to Plump or Peppy or even into Darwin.
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  Speaker 2: We are seeing, obviously people that have come into Darwen
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  Speaker 2: who are living either in accommodation that family have already
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  Speaker 2: got or living rough and we're seeing some of that
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  Speaker 2: displacement occurred. We were aware that what Air may spill
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  Speaker 2: over into Dahm. We have seen a bit of that
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  Speaker 2: obviously over the last week or so. But obviously we're
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  Speaker 2: very very mindful of making sure we've got a good
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  Speaker 2: connection between what's happening and what Air from an information
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  Speaker 2: and an intelligence point of view, so that we're sharing
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  Speaker 2: that with our teams, not just police but the whole
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  Speaker 2: NGO and government team that are working in this antisocial
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  Speaker 2: behavior space in Darwin, so that we can be in
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  Speaker 2: front of whatever's occurring.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, some of it's been pretty crazy. I mean that
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  Speaker 1: vision obviously over the course of the weekend from outside
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  Speaker 1: the hotel in Jinglely, we know that three people have
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: since been arrested, but somebody appearing to be hit by
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  Speaker 1: a vehicle then jumping up running away. We've also then
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  Speaker 1: seen photos emerge on social media of people with what
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  Speaker 1: appeared to be arrows in their various body parts. And
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  Speaker 1: then yesterday morning we caught up with one of the
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  Speaker 1: managers from Mitchell's out in Berrima who'd said that they'd
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  Speaker 1: actually had some of their crossbows and things like that stolen.
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  Speaker 1: So are there any links, I guess firstly to that
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  Speaker 1: breaking entry that we'd seen at Mitchell's and those crossbows
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  Speaker 1: being stolen. Do we believe that they could have ended
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  Speaker 1: up in the community.
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  Speaker 2: Of whatever, so it's more than likely that those involved
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  Speaker 2: have links to potentially What what I can say is
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  Speaker 2: we recovered some of the packaging from that unloaful entry
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  Speaker 2: in the Adelaide River area, and we have recovered most
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  Speaker 2: of those items within the water community already that was stolen.
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  Speaker 1: OK, So those crossbows and that kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, So to suggest there's a link between what
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  Speaker 2: that's quite obvious given that we've located in that location.
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  Speaker 2: There are some minor items still outstanding, so it wasn't
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  Speaker 2: just crossbos. There were some knives and other items that
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  Speaker 2: were taken at that same time which haven't yet been recovered.
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  Speaker 2: Investigations on going between both our Trient team here and
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  Speaker 2: darn and the WA Air Police to continue the identification
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  Speaker 2: process and bring those involved into custody.
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  Speaker 1: And you mentioned that you know some of that violence
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  Speaker 1: is obviously there has spilled into Darwin. As we saw
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  Speaker 1: throughout that vision. How many people are displaced and potentially
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  Speaker 1: in Darwin from the community of What.
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  Speaker 2: It's really hard to put a number on how many
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  Speaker 2: people from what are here. So the last time that
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  Speaker 2: you and I spoke, we were talking about the any
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  Speaker 2: social behavior problem that was rather exasperating for members of
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  Speaker 2: the community. At that time we had over three thousand people.
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  Speaker 2: So now our advice is that that number is certainly
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  Speaker 2: below fifteen hundred. People would be as low as a thousand,
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  Speaker 2: But we do know there are pockets of people from
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  Speaker 2: what a who. We've always got people from What are
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  Speaker 2: living rough in Darwen, almost on a semi permanent basis.
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  Speaker 2: We've seen some of those numbers increase, particularly along the
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  Speaker 2: McMillan's road area between the airport and the water gardens
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  Speaker 2: is one location where we know what Air people live.
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  Speaker 2: We've also got a group of what Air people living
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  Speaker 2: out at the back of Tallagi Road in the Garaonga area.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I think the hard part about it is as well,
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  Speaker 1: you see some of those photos you know that we've
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  Speaker 1: seen on social media. You see some of those images,
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  Speaker 1: but then you also think about women and children living
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  Speaker 1: out in that community and how dangerous it must be
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  Speaker 1: for some of them and bloody frightening, to be honest.
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  Speaker 2: They're absolutely scared and they're terrified for what it means
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  Speaker 2: for their community. What it's doing is it's not just
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  Speaker 2: having that short term impact, but it's impacting on kids
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  Speaker 2: going to school, it's impacting on people getting access to
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  Speaker 2: health services. There's a whole task force that's multi agent
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  Speaker 2: that's been delivered in relation to what air, and that
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  Speaker 2: task force is very much focused on that community safety
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  Speaker 2: and how that collectively we can work through this so
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  Speaker 2: that that safety aspect can be brought back in and
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  Speaker 2: whether that means that those community members who are displaced
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  Speaker 2: can live semi permanently in that displaced location, whether it's
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  Speaker 2: a homeland, whether it's another community. All that works on going.
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  Speaker 2: It's a significant challenge that's multi dimensional. Certainly has is
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  Speaker 2: extremely complex and it requires lots of agencies, lots of effort,
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  Speaker 2: lots of community engagement and buying, lots of leavers to
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  Speaker 2: be pulled to make sure that we can actually get
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  Speaker 2: a try understanding what's going on behind the scenes in
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  Speaker 2: relation to the cultural aspect of why this is occurring.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, we are fast running out of time, but
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask you about some of those concerns
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  Speaker 1: we have seen around the place when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: public drunkenness. You did say that those numbers have dropped
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  Speaker 1: significantly in terms of people being in town from other communities.
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  Speaker 1: How have you got I know that those patrols have
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: restarted as well, where some of that alcohol's being tipped out,
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  Speaker 1: people are being apprehended if they are behaving in a
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  Speaker 1: way or you know, in criminal engaging in criminal behavior.
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  Speaker 1: How have some of those patrols been going when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to public drunkenness.
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  Speaker 2: So what we've done is we've actually pulled all the
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  Speaker 2: entities together that are involved in this space, both frontline
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  Speaker 2: services that are doing that enforcement and engagement type work,
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  Speaker 2: but then behind that having the outreach services coming following
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  Speaker 2: in close behind to be able to work out what
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  Speaker 2: the situation that individuals are in and how we can
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  Speaker 2: work with them to get them into a different scenario,
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  Speaker 2: which is why for example, this month, for the month
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  Speaker 2: of May return to country was four hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 2: two people and this month already so noting that we're
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  Speaker 2: only halfway through June, two hundred and ninety four people
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  Speaker 2: have returned to country as well. Okay, so the increased
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  Speaker 2: level of coordination we're using the Nightclif Police station is
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: our central point to be able to talk to agencies
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  Speaker 2: every day to make sure we know where the issues
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  Speaker 2: are so that our resources are been maximized. It's clearly
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  Speaker 2: making a difference. We still have challenges around access to
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  Speaker 2: alcohol and alcohol and drunken behavior criminality as a consequence,
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  Speaker 2: but we are seeing the numbers living rough reducing the
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  Speaker 2: any social behavior impact reducing. But will continue to work
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  Speaker 2: because at the moment, town's pack that's heaving. We've just
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: had a vas which went really well. We need to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that the amenity of our community is save
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: as it can be and make sure it's safe for
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: all the new visitors we've got to town, which is great.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: One of the terrible things that we have seen as
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  Speaker 1: well in recent days is a terrible fatality on our
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  Speaker 1: road out in the rural area out there near Nunamar.
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  Speaker 1: I know that certainly a tributes flowing through that life
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  Speaker 1: for that man whose life was lost. But there is
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  Speaker 1: no doubt that road safety, particularly it seems as though
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  Speaker 1: we see we're having more incidents out in the rural
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  Speaker 1: area at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: For some reason, we did ask you before we started
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  Speaker 2: this interview today about your listenership in the rural area.
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  Speaker 1: We've got a lot of people that listen in the
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  Speaker 1: rural area.
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  Speaker 2: I want them to open their ears because clearly some
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  Speaker 2: of them are not listening. So this is a case
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  Speaker 2: of one of the fatal five being in play. This
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  Speaker 2: person was obviously impaired because of well the media release
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  Speaker 2: quite clearly indicated that he'd been taken into custody to
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: deal with presentation of cannabis and pulled in front of
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  Speaker 2: a vehicle, sorry a writer that caused his death. Only
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  Speaker 2: two weeks ago, we had another fatal in that area,
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  Speaker 2: and within hours of that fatal occurring, we've been in
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  Speaker 2: the same location arresting people for drink driving on that
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  Speaker 2: same road. Yet this same person drunk drove, crashed and died,
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  Speaker 2: And it's happening far too often. The impact here is
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  Speaker 2: the individual, the community, the family, but also obviously the
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: police as well. And I'm not selfishly talking about the police,
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  Speaker 2: but every time this occurs, we've got to attend to
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the crash and then to the family and that takes
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  Speaker 2: as absolute toll. I asked, I urged the rural road users.
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  Speaker 2: Please slow down, stop if you're impaired, Please don't drive distraction.
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  Speaker 2: We've had a near fatal hit and run during the
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  Speaker 2: week that was a person driving admitted he was looking
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  Speaker 2: at his mobile phone and struck a pedestrian. As a consequence.
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  Speaker 2: In that rural area, we've had two pedestrian strikes that
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: led to fatalities. One was well publicized, the other not
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  Speaker 2: so much, but still two is too many. Please just
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  Speaker 2: take care on the roads, and particularly that rural area,
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  Speaker 2: because we've seen a significant increase in fatalities in that
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  Speaker 2: rural area for this year, where way above last year's
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  Speaker 2: fatality rate. We're running unfortunately, we've had twenty six fatalities
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  Speaker 2: this year already thirteen so double what we had last year,
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  Speaker 2: and I'd suggest a lot of those have occurred in
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  Speaker 2: our rural area outside of Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: It is terrible stuff. It is something that we need
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to see some change in that space. We have run
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  Speaker 1: out of time, but just very very quickly. We did
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  Speaker 1: receive some information from one of our listeners out at
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Marlow's Lagoon that apparently a little forklift or a little
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: excavator had potentially been broken out of a fenced off
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: area there at the dog park and caused some damage.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Is any report, No report at this stage to you guys,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: and we'll see.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: What we can find out.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well, we'll see what we can find out. We
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: better leave it there. Travis Worst, Assistant Commissioner with the
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police. Thanks so much for your time.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you,