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Katie Woolf spoke with Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio right now is the Northern
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Territory Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, commissioner.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Good to have you back on the show for twenty
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: twenty one, and no doubt it's going to be a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: busy year, it always is.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Can we cover the issue which has really.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Got people concerned at the moment, that is the issue
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of youth crime in Alice Springs. The message that we're
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: hearing loudly and clearly is the police are doing the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: best they can under very difficult circumstances. How are things
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: going in Alice from a police perspective, Look.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: It's definitely an upward trend down there at the moment,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: there's no denying that. And the latest stats that I've
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: had a look at are indicating an increase in property
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: crime of about fifty percent of unlawful entries. Now we
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: know that's been heavily skewed by that day of twenty
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: five breaks. We know that there was two eight year
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: olds with no prior real history exposed that just did
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: multiple businesses. These businesses were a mix of retail businesses,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: indigenous art galleries, legal services, community services, not for profits.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: So there was no real organization in any of this approach.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: We believe there was about six youth ultimately responsible for that,
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: including those two year olds. It was a significant aberration
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: to how things were traveling. But then what's promulgated that
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: is the broader activity, certainly in the social media space,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: is showing what that continuation has been. We've made a
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: significant step forward. We've put further police back into them
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: all consistently. So whilst we've seen now a reduction in CBD,
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: unlawful entries and property crime, we've seen a little bit
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: still starting to occur in our suburbs and our viper
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: team are working across evenings and night shifts. Our drone
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: team are out and about, so we've been very very
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: proactive as well as also we're working with the multi
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: agencies and back to school this week is something that
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: we're very much pushing.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: For two eight year olds, but six in total.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Is a suggestion that the older kids were potentially grooming
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the younger ones.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Intact, this was two indiscriminate groups. As I understand it,
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: it's just these two young eight year olds side by
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: side and just you know, unfortunately part of it is
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: they see all this imagery. Unfortunately, are exposed to social media.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: They do have a level of sophistication around understanding social media.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: They see this type of image and they believe it's
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: something that you do, and this is part of what
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: we've got to contend with as well.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So you reckon that the social media side of things
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: is encouraging them to commit christ I.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Think the social media is trying to play a very
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: important part of public awareness and messaging, but we've got
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: to balance that about causing genuine fear and apprehension in
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: the community. There is no doubt that Alice Springs community
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: residents feel vulnerable, they feel under siege. We've got a
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: step forward, as we've continually done. We are not going
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: to leave the residents of Alice Springs to the own devices.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: We are there to help, will continually be there to help.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: We're working twenty four to seven to try and make
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: sure that we can get in front of this. We
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: know when we get the recidivius defenders under control that
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: we can balance this out. With school holidays now coming back,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: we're very hopeful that a lot of those younger kids
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: in particular will be engaged during the day, so education
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: are already on the front foot trying to do the
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: level of re engagement, as are our people.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: How are your officers going in Alla Springs.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: There's no doubt that it would have to have an impact,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you know, battling the same issues each and every day.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: I understand that they're incredibly professional.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: This is exactly what they're trained for, but I would
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: still suspect that it has an impact on morale.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Look it does. I mean, this is occurring in their home.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: They live there. This town is their home, their families,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: their friends all live there. So it's hard not to
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: take it personal. You want to make a difference, but
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: what we're seeing in Alice Springs is an aberration to
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: a degree of what's occurring elsewhere. So we have the
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: same laws and legislation in place across the whole of
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: the Northern Territory. But we're trending at about sixty percent
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: reduction and unlawful entries in Casirina, about thirty percent reduction
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: in Parmesan, and in Darwin. Catherine's had a fairly good reduction,
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: but Tenant Creek and Alice Springs have both had a
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: significant rise. We've seen an increase in endimestic violence reporting
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: as well, and we know that the extra money was
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: out there. Unfortunately large proportion of it went into alcohol,
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: which is insidious to the functionality of Aboriginal communities. And
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: that's where we're seeing this unfortunately, our recidivist offenders and
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: the offenders we're identifying, even with no history Aboriginal kids,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: and there's a causation about that, and we've got to
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: understand that so we can tackle that problem.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: The discussions has turned to youth's bail laws. Yet again,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it does seem to go this way very often. I'll
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: ask you the same question that the Queensland Police Commissioner
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: was asked on the weekend, and for her it was
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: following on from the tragic situation which unfolded their last week.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Do we need to relook at these bail laws for
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: reoffending youth?
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: So I think the question that the Police commission and
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Queen's Alum was asked was about the length of time
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: that someone should stay in custody, and of course what
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: we do know is that a person who's in custody
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: can't reoffend, certainly as it relates to property out and
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: about in a community. So her answer is quite quite accurate.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: In that regard, we do know if you keep people
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: on remand or incarcerated, then they can't affec. But there's
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: a broader issue here because, as I say, in Casarina,
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: in Palmerston and dah And, we're seeing and enjoying a
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: reduction in crime. Now that's property crime specific, but we're
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: seeing also an increase in those areas though in again
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: and domestic disturbances and a bit of an upwood on
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: anty social behavior. So each area is moving around. What
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: we continue to do though, is we will go and
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: always interdict and arrest those that we believe are responsible
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: for crime, and then we follow the relevant pathway. The
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: jails are full, so I have to restate that the
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: jails are full. The police are the ones who put
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: people in jail ultimately via the arrest mechanisms and proving
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: it through the court that those people are guilty. So
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: there's a strong element here that still links to social
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: dysfunction and why we're seeing so many Aboriginal people incarcerated.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Now, just on that note of the jails being full,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: have you had to have prisoners out at the watchhouse.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: At time to time? We always provide that contingency for
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: them to enable them sufficient time to be able to
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: move their chess pieces around to be able to make
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: adequate accommodation of arlable. Believe that's occurred again in recent times,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: but that's not the cases I understand it today.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, just back on those bail laws, does the presumption
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: of bail for offenders need to be changed?
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Well, we have a provision through the barl ACKed already
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: that we can seek a review of a decision if
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: we believe that a person should be remanded in custody
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: and a judge makes a determination that they still want
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: to release them on bail. So we do utilize that
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: the issue of bail and the issue of arrest is
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: an action of last resort, particularly around trying to prevent
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: the continuation of offenses. And I think it's fairly clear
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: our arrest rates remain very very high. So we're very
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: adept at that again putting people on bail. We're continuing
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: to work on bail monitoring to see how that's going. Indeed,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: we focus actively on bail monitoring. I've asked each of
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: the teams to, particularly in Alice Springs, what else can
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: we ultimately try and do so that we can potentially
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: put forwards some suggestions as to what we can do
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: to treat this specific rise. But I go back to it,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: this is specific to location. The same laws and legislation
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: in place across the whole of the territory, but we're
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: not seeing the extent of those spikes in the top
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: end as we are in the central Desert.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: But so in Central Australia, you do feel that maybe
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: we do need to look at doing things differently when
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it comes to.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Bail well, I think there's a broader conversation around why
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: is Alice Springs and Tenant Creek so predominantly impacted by
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: property crime in particular, particularly where we know they're going
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: for commodities such as food for cash and those types
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: of things. Unfortunately, there's also that element of just indiscriminate damage,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: the smashing of windows. But both of those places in
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: particular are dominant service community service towns for their community,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: so highly transient. We know that alcohol is a draw
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: and that's where we see the public drinking really come
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: to the issue and their centralized so through the CBD.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: As I say, since we've had the Moll patrol back
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: in place, we've had a diminishing of the actual crime
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: occurring in the CBD, but there's now some further activity
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: into the suburbs and we're moving to try and mitigate
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: that as well.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, it is such a complex issue. I
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: think we all understand that. But certainly the public at
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the moment really seem quite worried about the bail laws.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know whether it's because it's become such a
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: political argument. One of the things that has also been
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: asked by our listeners is did the police ask the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: government to change the bail laws so that there was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: not a presumption against.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Bail not, to the best of my knowledge, No, what do.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: You reckon we need to do here?
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I know that this is so difficult, and I know that,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, you're obviously dealing with very different
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: issues in each and every region and there's no sort
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of quick fix.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: We all understand that. But at the.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Moment, the government seems to have plans in place for
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: what they can do long term with young people to
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: try and set them on the right path. The police
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: seem to be doing everything that they can to try
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and stop crime and to try to help territorians when
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a crime is committed some where things are still breaking
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: down at the moment at various locations.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: That's certainly the case, and I go back to it.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: If we step back and look at it, the history
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: of our information tells us there's more Aboriginal people incarcerated
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory percentage wise than any other jurisdiction
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: by a country mile. Now that's a causation issue that's
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: been present with us for a very long long period
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: of time. The alcoholism issues that we've seen as that's
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: impacted on any social behavior you growing up in the territory.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: I remember driving through Catherine seeing fights in the middle
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: of the street, windows being smashed, alice springs. When I
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: first started there in nineteen ninety five, all of those
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: retail shops and the mall already had shutters. There was
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: already GROWFEEDI all those types of things. So this has
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: been present for us for quite a period of time.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: We're now fast tracked to where we've been over the
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: last five years or so. We've had royal commissions, we've
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: got high presence of fas D, we've got broader issues
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: of mental illness, we've got continuing growth in family and
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: domestic violence, and yet again, we've now seen significant investment
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: going into the welfare system where that money translates to
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: instead of buying lots of cartons of beer, they start
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: and buy lots of bottles of Bundy rum and the like.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: That violence then has a kick on effect, and unfortunately
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: it's been amplified in Alice Springs and Tenant Creek and
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: that scene. The youth certainly become more engaged in criminal
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: activity and that not unreasonably has got the town highly concerned.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: But to reassure the town, Alice Springs remained very, very
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: central to all of our focus and discussion. We continue
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: to send resources down there to make sure that they're supported,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: and we're continuing to work with all of the other
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: government agencies. And now that we've got school back, we're
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: hoping to make a really significant drive in partnership with
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: everybody to get these kids back to school so we
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: can start understanding what is the social issues that's confronting
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: each and every one of these children.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Let's move along.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Over the Christmas break, there was reports that more police
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: had left the force. Paul McKee from the Police Association
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: confirming with this on Friday. Ten per month are leaving
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: five in the last fortnight. This must be a concern
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: for you.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: It's not a concern in so much as this was
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: forle and Paul is aware of that. I was in
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: discussions with the NTPA throughout the course of last year.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: If you recall, we sought additional and gained approval for
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: a sixty six additional police plus the thirty Aboriginal liaison
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: officers and other public sector employees. There was always going
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: to be a draw, particularly as I started seeing the
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: likes in New South Wales and Victoria Police with over
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: eighteen thousand police each having to call on the Australian
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Defense Force to bolster their resources because they were running
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: out of resources to do their policing. We're a minnow
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: in that comparison. We're a touchover twelve hundred sworn constables
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: and above. So I ramped up the recruiting. We've graduated
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: eighty two in the last fourteen months. There's one hundred
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: and forty constables currently in the college. Some graduate, another
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: twenty eight graduate next month, another thirty graduate the month
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: after that. By the time we probably hit October this year,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: we would have graduated. Since I returned in November of
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, two hundred and twenty two councils of Police
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: and ninety nine police auxiliaries thirty alas were really pumping
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: the pipe up to make sure that all these agencies
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: into state are going on mass recruiting drives. They've had
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: increases to their police establishment and they're seeking non the
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: territory police officers. And the reason why is because our
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: people are highly sought after, their valuable, they're well experienced.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: But this is not new. This has occurred for us
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: repeatedly and continuously. And because I foresaw that this COVID
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: issue and the pandemic was making a placement on people
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: who couldn't get access to their families, that draw was
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: foreseeable and we had plans in place.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: So are there exit interviews?
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Are you sort of discussing with people when they leave
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: why they're leaving.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we do an exit interview process. Interestingly, I
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: was speaking with Paul this morning. Now, unfortunately Paul tells
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: me that he then gets an email after what we
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: get told, and he gets told a different version. We
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: can't do much about that if people who are departing
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: don't want to let us know exactly what their legitimate
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: reasons are, then we can't do much about it. But
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: what we do know is because we know who's going,
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: we know where we've recruited them from, a large number
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: of them are going back to their home jurisdiction. A
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: large number of them are going back to police forces
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: that they've either always aspired to go to or that
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: they've previously worked in. And that's what we're seeing.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Now where we with the borders. Do we still have
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: police on our border points? And has that drain I
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: guess you'd say lifted to some degree.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Look, we've been the only agency NonStop since March operating
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: twenty four to seven. As it relates to COVID, those
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: borders have been up in place since that period of time,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: and look at where the territory is. So our agency
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: deserves a significant amount of attention for what it's done.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: They have worked tirelessly. People have sacrificed leave. We know
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: that equally. We've tried to manage leave. We've tried to
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: work with twelve hour rosters. We've now rescinded the twelve
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: hour rosters. We're back doing eight, nine and ten hour rosters.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: We're planning by the recruiting we've been doing that as
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: people come out, we can start increasing our leave caps
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: for people. They are very much of the forefront of
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: our considerations as it relates to our border checkpoints. Now
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: that WA's will Perth specifically is the sole hotspot that remains.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: I was in touch with the Essay Police Commissioner on
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Sunday confirmed that they're going to have a hard border
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: in place with WA from South Australia. That's given me
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: the ability to then stand down the Colgra border checkpoint
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: and also the came A Will border checkpoint. The only
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: one that we'll start will remain physically staffed is the
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Victoria Highway just for that entrance from Kunnenara and the like.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: And we've got our automatic number plate recognition in place
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: for the Tanamai and the Buntain Highway.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Is that going to make things a little bit easier
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: for you when it comes to resourcing and having patrols
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: on the road.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Certainly, so obviously bringing them back into the places that
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: they're normally assigned to is going to be a greater
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: means for us to deploy more people. But across the
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: board we still have to do our compliance element to it.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: The further balance here is if COVID does permeate into
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: the Northern territory when we go into full lockdown, then
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: our policing is going to be under pressure yet again
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: and we are going to have to call on assistance
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: again from the AFP and the ADF in the event
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: that occurs. But we're doing all we can to make
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: sure that doesn't occur.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Just very quickly, back on police leaving the force, are
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: you concerned about the experience that you're losing?
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Again, well drilled in respects of this. This is a
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: constant tune for us. Of note the people who have
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: been in the agency, you'll recall there was no real
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: graduations for a twelve month period before our return. We
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: graduated fifty eight. As I say, we're upwards of eighty
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: two have been graduated. So those people now have got
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: a year or so under their belt. But before that,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: we've got a significant cardra now that are upwards of
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: three four years in the job who are now starting
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: to become senior constables. We've turned the promotion pathway back on,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: so we've got promotions for senior sergeants for sergeants, we've
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: turned professional development back on through the course of last
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: year to make sure that more investigators are getting trained.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: We've put through a detective training course, so we're opening
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: all these opportunities for our people to make sure they're
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: being trained. Our Bush Police know that they're getting well supported,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: that we're making significant moves to make sure that they've
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: got the appropriate resourcing to be able to deal with
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: their challenges and issues as well. And as we get
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: these resources coming back from the COVID presence back into
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: our major centers, we expect to see a high police
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: presence Commissioner.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Just finally this morning on the weekend, sadly, a ninety
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: two year old man was allegedly assaulted by a sixteen
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: year old. That teenager was apprehended and was due to
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a peer in court yesterday. We spoke to a witness
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: yesterday who said police did a great job. He said
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to criticize police, but it had taken
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: over thirty minutes for the police to.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Get to that assault. Is that time frame acceptable to you?
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Our preference would always be able to try and get
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: there as soon as we reasonably can. What I would
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: have a level of confidence about is that they would
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: have got there as soon as they reasonably could. What
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: occurs generally on a weekend particularly is a changeover from
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: the night shift to the day shift. Is the day
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: shifts briefed on what offenders may already be in custody.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: So there may have already been others that were in
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: custody from the previous night. Day shift crew had to
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: do some follow up work with and that's why they
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: might not have been able to respond immediately. But be
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: very comforted now. Join Emergency Services Communications Center prioritizes and
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: coordinates this and on pleas that we affected and arrest
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: because that particular offense was not something that meets the
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: community standard.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: No, it was disgraceful.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Commissioner, Police Commissioner for the Northern Territory, Jamie Chalker. We
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: better leave it there. We've got the mayor waiting outside.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time this morning.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie,