Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says he plans to stay in the role despite a lack of confidence in him among the force

Transcript

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says he plans to stay in the role despite a lack of confidence in him among the force · 360 with Katie Woolf

0:00
Speaker 1: It is safe to say the morale of the police
0:02
Speaker 1: force has been high on the agenda in recent weeks,
0:05
Speaker 1: with a survey by the Police Association outlining some pretty
0:09
Speaker 1: serious concerns. Now, we spoke to the Minister for Police
0:12
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, who said that a full financial review of
0:15
Speaker 1: the force was taking place along with the structural review.
0:19
Speaker 1: She said that a full restructure of the force was
0:22
Speaker 1: on the table. Now joining me in the studio is
0:25
Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police Commissioner and also CEO of Fire
0:29
Speaker 1: and Emergency Services, Jamie Chalker.
0:31
Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Commissioner.
0:33
Speaker 1: Now Commissioner, the recent survey of one thy forty four
0:37
Speaker 1: police officers, the highest number of participants that a Northern
0:42
Speaker 1: Territory Police Union survey has ever seen, revealed seventy nine
0:46
Speaker 1: point seven percent of surveyed officers do not have confidence
0:51
Speaker 1: in you.
0:52
Speaker 2: What was your reaction to that result?
0:54
Speaker 3: It was an unexpected, Codie, given the period of time
0:57
Speaker 3: that we've had. If you look at the totel, we've
1:00
Speaker 3: got a strength of about sixteen hundred and thirty police officers,
1:03
Speaker 3: so those results, when you look at it, really a
1:05
Speaker 3: closer to fifty percent have expressed that no confidence nearly
1:08
Speaker 3: fifty percent either didn't participate, and that was one of
1:11
Speaker 3: the clear messages that the NTPA president provided to people
1:14
Speaker 3: is he knew that people didn't agree with it, and
1:16
Speaker 3: a number voted that they do have confidence. So there's
1:20
Speaker 3: a balance in that. But look, the issue of morale,
1:23
Speaker 3: we know and we spoke about it that you and
1:25
Speaker 3: the move was going to be front and center of that.
1:27
Speaker 3: That's exactly how it played out. But what was also
1:29
Speaker 3: very prominent in that survey was the result of the
1:32
Speaker 3: wage policy, and that was a very overwhelming message and
1:35
Speaker 3: all of those linked to the morale. There's no doubt
1:38
Speaker 3: hour people did enormous heavy lifting over the last two
1:41
Speaker 3: and a half years, certainly in the COVID response, and
1:44
Speaker 3: all the while, because we were so successful in allowing
1:47
Speaker 3: the territory to have the freedoms it had, we were
1:49
Speaker 3: still dealing with the highly pressurized environment as we ordinarily
1:52
Speaker 3: do in our social setting. So they've been working there
1:55
Speaker 3: absolute tales off in the best interests of the territory,
1:59
Speaker 3: and then when they aim forward for that wage policy,
2:01
Speaker 3: that was clearly something that they felt aggrieved, and certainly
2:04
Speaker 3: when I met with delegates that that was the key
2:07
Speaker 3: prominent conversation and the first topic that.
2:10
Speaker 1: Was raised with me, Well, Commisha, I get what you're
2:12
Speaker 1: saying that obviously not everybody from within the Northern Territory
2:15
Speaker 1: Police Force has taken part, and you said that, you know,
2:17
Speaker 1: it's probably more like fifty percent. Even taking that into account,
2:21
Speaker 1: that must still be a concern for you that fifty
2:24
Speaker 1: percent of the rank and file don't feel that they've
2:26
Speaker 1: got confidence in you.
2:28
Speaker 3: It's a question of what the messaging is going out.
2:30
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, and people know this, I'm very limited in
2:34
Speaker 3: what I can say, and that still remains the case
2:35
Speaker 3: of the day the coronial commences on Monday. That's been
2:38
Speaker 3: the subject of much reporting, certainly a lot of social
2:42
Speaker 3: media opinion and commentary, much of it inaccurate. I know
2:45
Speaker 3: Paul spoke the other day about some of the inaccuracies
2:47
Speaker 3: that have been going on with some other things more recently.
2:50
Speaker 3: So it's very difficult to be able to overcome a
2:53
Speaker 3: lot of that rumor, unfortunately, and the rarely is we
2:56
Speaker 3: know this to be the case that there are people
2:58
Speaker 3: who are also joined into that who have been impacted
3:01
Speaker 3: by the COVID mandates and have felt highly aggrieved by
3:04
Speaker 3: those things, So there's a it's a significant pressurized environment.
3:07
Speaker 3: But against the backdrop of what we're trying to do,
3:10
Speaker 3: we know the cronial is going to be a tough
3:11
Speaker 3: road for us, for our community. We already know that
3:15
Speaker 3: we've got our support and wellbeing response plans well and
3:17
Speaker 3: truly in place to try and cover that off. We've
3:19
Speaker 3: got offices being targeted by social media campaigns, which is
3:22
Speaker 3: pretty poor behavior. To be upfront. All they are doing
3:26
Speaker 3: is doing their job and doing what they're obliged to
3:28
Speaker 3: do as part of a process that they've been caught
3:30
Speaker 3: up in.
3:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, I'll go back to that in just a moment.
3:32
Speaker 1: I do just want to stick with the survey for
3:34
Speaker 1: a second. Ninety two percent of those respondents did say
3:38
Speaker 1: that they do not think that there is enough police
3:40
Speaker 1: officers in the Northern Territory to carry out the work
3:43
Speaker 1: that's expected of them, while seventy nine point four percent
3:47
Speaker 1: rated morale in the force as low or very low.
3:51
Speaker 1: And there is also the issue of the wage freeze
3:54
Speaker 1: Commissioner taking those numbers into account and that lack of
3:57
Speaker 1: confidence in you, Why do you still think that you're
4:00
Speaker 1: the best place to lead the.
4:01
Speaker 3: Force, Because We've never faced greater challenges that have been
4:04
Speaker 3: outside the control of a Commissioner of Police, and the
4:07
Speaker 3: actions that we've got in place, the things we've sent
4:09
Speaker 3: our strategies for give us a clear direction where we're going.
4:12
Speaker 3: If you look back at what has been achieved, look
4:15
Speaker 3: at what we did with COVID. Now. I was front
4:17
Speaker 3: and center in the leadership response to COVID and people
4:19
Speaker 3: have drawn their own opinion on that, and arguably I
4:24
Speaker 3: think the Northern Territory was held in extremely good stead
4:26
Speaker 3: and many are commenting on the fact that we probably
4:28
Speaker 3: led the nation, if not the world, in our response.
4:31
Speaker 3: We played a strong part in that. More importantly, the
4:34
Speaker 3: Health and well Being review. I commenced that in November
4:36
Speaker 3: of last year. Unfortunately, we had a number of tragedies
4:39
Speaker 3: that flowed from that. But the families that I've been
4:42
Speaker 3: engaged with appreciate the work we're doing. They know what
4:45
Speaker 3: we're trying to do in that space. I've spoken in
4:47
Speaker 3: estimates about our future direction in that space, our disciplinary system.
4:51
Speaker 3: I've been at pains for the last two and a
4:52
Speaker 3: half years to get progress in that space. I've now
4:55
Speaker 3: gone to the extent of having external review appointed at
4:58
Speaker 3: commander from Victoria Police to do that work. He'll provide
5:01
Speaker 3: that report hopefully, hopefully to me by the end of September.
5:04
Speaker 3: I want our support and well being work weaved into
5:07
Speaker 3: our disciplinary system and performance management system. The challenge with
5:11
Speaker 3: our disciplinary system is our appeals process. We've got three
5:14
Speaker 3: chairs and unfortunately we haven't been able to get them
5:18
Speaker 3: through as many of these matters. So some of those
5:19
Speaker 3: matters are two years in time, and all of that
5:22
Speaker 3: impacts people.
5:22
Speaker 2: Why is it taking so long?
5:24
Speaker 1: I mean you've just said there are those three chairs,
5:26
Speaker 1: but two years, I mean that's a phenomenal amount of
5:29
Speaker 1: time for somebody to put their life on hold.
5:31
Speaker 3: Our chairs put their hands up. They all run their
5:33
Speaker 3: own legal practices. Their availability is the crucial part of that.
5:36
Speaker 3: We're trying to expand that growth. But unfortunately the established
5:40
Speaker 3: legislative sitting fees are nowhere near commetriate to what they
5:43
Speaker 3: could ordinarily.
5:44
Speaker 2: So does it need to change? Does that need to
5:46
Speaker 2: go in play?
5:46
Speaker 3: And it's brought a part of that review.
5:48
Speaker 2: How quickly do you think that that's going to come
5:50
Speaker 2: into action.
5:51
Speaker 3: I'm waiting on advice of whether it requires legislative reform
5:53
Speaker 3: or whether there's a means that we can have that
5:55
Speaker 3: done without legislation, if it's legislative reform. Unfortunately, you know
5:58
Speaker 3: that's going to.
5:59
Speaker 2: Be timely, Commissioner, we do know as well.
6:01
Speaker 1: According to that Police Association survey, many comments in that
6:04
Speaker 1: survey pointed to the charging of Constable Zachary Rolf as
6:08
Speaker 1: the reason for a lack of.
6:09
Speaker 2: Confidence and low morale.
6:12
Speaker 1: Are you comfortable with the way that the police investigation
6:15
Speaker 1: into his charging was handled?
6:17
Speaker 3: So, Katie, there's a coronial coming up that's going to
6:19
Speaker 3: be covered as part of that. Equally, there's the Ikak
6:22
Speaker 3: inquiry that we're participating with. Again, I'll leave it for
6:25
Speaker 3: those things. What I can say to you is there's
6:27
Speaker 3: an awful lot of mistruths out there. People have taken
6:29
Speaker 3: them to be true and they're not. They're based on
6:31
Speaker 3: opinion and they're not based on fact.
6:33
Speaker 1: I've got to ask, was there interference by you or
6:37
Speaker 1: any other members of the police executive before he was charged?
6:41
Speaker 1: There was no interference from me, and you're confident that
6:44
Speaker 1: as these processes go through.
6:46
Speaker 2: What about other members of the executive?
6:48
Speaker 3: Well, not that I'm privy to, so I certainly have
6:51
Speaker 3: no indication that that's the case.
6:52
Speaker 1: But from your perspective, not with you correct? Okay. There
6:57
Speaker 1: has been reports that Zachary Rolf is back at work
7:00
Speaker 1: but isn't allowed to enter any police stations.
7:03
Speaker 2: Is that the case?
7:04
Speaker 3: And why I can't comment on individuals, Katie, You'll appreciate
7:07
Speaker 3: that he's entitled his privacy as well. I can confirm
7:10
Speaker 3: that zach is.
7:11
Speaker 1: Back at work, all right, but you won't go into
7:15
Speaker 1: whether he know okay, I mean is it impossible for
7:19
Speaker 1: him to be able to do his job though if
7:21
Speaker 1: he can't go into a police station.
7:23
Speaker 3: Not from what I understand of the work that he's doing.
7:26
Speaker 2: I do want to move on.
7:27
Speaker 1: There has been calls this week for a select committee
7:29
Speaker 1: into the police force by the opposition and one independent.
7:32
Speaker 1: We've then got a situation where the Member for Blaine,
7:34
Speaker 1: Mark Turner, thinks that there needs to be a step
7:37
Speaker 1: further and has written to the Prime Minister calling for
7:40
Speaker 1: a Royal commission.
7:41
Speaker 2: Do you think there needs.
7:42
Speaker 1: To be an independent look into the Northern Territory Police Force?
7:46
Speaker 3: No? I don't. We've got lots of activities going on,
7:48
Speaker 3: looking at out staffing, the work that we're doing with treasury,
7:52
Speaker 3: which has been something that will ultimately inform Cabinet around
7:56
Speaker 3: the funding model for police. But it's also the Police
7:58
Speaker 3: Foreign I managed services challenge here is that I'm not
8:01
Speaker 3: aware of a budget being met by police foreign emergency
8:04
Speaker 3: services for many, many many years, like decades long. The
8:08
Speaker 3: challenges we run a twenty four to seven business that
8:10
Speaker 3: is very difficult for us to predict how we respond
8:13
Speaker 3: to that. What is going on across the country, and
8:15
Speaker 3: this is what I've been briefing up regularly is that
8:18
Speaker 3: Queensland Police, for example, twenty five hundred extra police by
8:21
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five, Western Australia Police fifteen hundred extra police.
8:25
Speaker 3: A number of other jurisdictions have all got significant increases
8:27
Speaker 3: in police. We've had an increase of seventy five police
8:32
Speaker 3: auxiliaries who are licensing inspectors from twenty sixteen seventeen, and
8:35
Speaker 3: we've had twenty one additional police through our regional remote
8:39
Speaker 3: model proved only this recent budget outcome, and thirty four
8:43
Speaker 3: aboriginally aison officers. So that's the space that we're trying
8:46
Speaker 3: to highlight, is that there's been much change in the
8:48
Speaker 3: crime environment and the social order response obligations on us
8:52
Speaker 3: mental health and these are the challenges we need to
8:54
Speaker 3: understand within our budget.
8:55
Speaker 1: Well, and the thing is a lot of people listening
8:57
Speaker 1: are going to be thinking. And I know that the
8:59
Speaker 1: Productivity Commission report came out as well and pointed to
9:02
Speaker 1: just that that there has been a greater investment into
9:04
Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police Force and that there's more police.
9:07
Speaker 1: But everyone's asking where are they.
9:09
Speaker 3: Well, they're out and about the problem is that not
9:12
Speaker 3: everybody's going to see them on the front line. Unfortunately,
9:16
Speaker 3: we've had significant numbers and I've spoken about this previously
9:19
Speaker 3: of assaults. The assaults have increased. That then sees a
9:21
Speaker 3: whole lot of police officers off the road dealing with
9:24
Speaker 3: those family and domestic violence related matters. The incident that
9:27
Speaker 3: occurred at Uncle Sam's in the recent days, that's a
9:30
Speaker 3: mix of alcohol and also mental health in that game,
9:32
Speaker 3: and that takes police off the road when they have
9:34
Speaker 3: to respond to those types of matters. The demand environment
9:37
Speaker 3: for us has been significant, but you've got police who
9:39
Speaker 3: are out there also dealing with child sex offenses. You've
9:44
Speaker 3: looked at excellent work the police are doing. We're seeing
9:47
Speaker 3: crimes being reported and look how frequently we're putting out
9:50
Speaker 3: responses and media releases about the arrest we're making. We
9:53
Speaker 3: are making significant arrests. The jails are full, both adult
9:57
Speaker 3: and juvenile. They've never had more people in us rated.
10:00
Speaker 3: Those people don't turn up and knock on the door
10:02
Speaker 3: to go in there. They're getting in there because of
10:04
Speaker 3: the excellent work of our police officers. But the demand
10:07
Speaker 3: environment is strong. What we're starting to see now is
10:09
Speaker 3: a balance. But please also appreciate we too were impacted
10:12
Speaker 3: by COVID. Fifty five officers off per day at various
10:16
Speaker 3: points in time. Plus I had a reclieve liability of
10:19
Speaker 3: all those that were caught up in COVID response, one
10:21
Speaker 3: hundred and forty police during COVID taken away limited sick leave,
10:25
Speaker 3: limited rec leeve being able to be made available. We've
10:27
Speaker 3: got an obligation for support and well being, and that's
10:29
Speaker 3: what we've been trying.
10:30
Speaker 1: So is there a situation at the moment then where
10:32
Speaker 1: you've got a bucket load of people that are on
10:33
Speaker 1: leave that can now finally go on leave.
10:36
Speaker 3: We're starting well, we've been trying to get people exposed
10:38
Speaker 3: to leave from the start of this year. But of course,
10:40
Speaker 3: you know, the third wave of COVID certainly impacted, and
10:42
Speaker 3: I would say that they haven't impacted everyone. We talk
10:45
Speaker 3: about attrition, we're actually not in the top three or
10:47
Speaker 3: four agencies in the Northern Territory alone with attrition rates
10:52
Speaker 3: as high, actually lower than theirs. But of course everybody
10:56
Speaker 3: is interested in police because we are all things to
10:59
Speaker 3: all people, and we will continue to be so. And
11:01
Speaker 3: the victim of crime surveys we have overwhelmingly tell us
11:04
Speaker 3: the support for our people is exceptional. They're doing great work.
11:08
Speaker 1: The thing, though, that we can't sort of go past,
11:10
Speaker 1: is the fact that that survey did say that the
11:14
Speaker 1: police feel as though there is not enough of them.
11:16
Speaker 1: The rank and file officers feel as though there's not
11:19
Speaker 1: enough of them to be able to do the job
11:21
Speaker 1: that's being asked of them by the community or that's
11:24
Speaker 1: expected of them by the community.
11:26
Speaker 2: So do we have enough police?
11:28
Speaker 3: That's the body of work that I've been strongly advocating for,
11:31
Speaker 3: and that's why I was very welcoming of the work
11:33
Speaker 3: that we're going to do with Treasury. I've continually to
11:36
Speaker 3: raise the fact that the Productivity Commission basis that we've
11:39
Speaker 3: got more police per capita than anywhere else doesn't actually
11:42
Speaker 3: understand the complexity of our operating environment. If you do
11:45
Speaker 3: it by per square kilometer, we've got the lowest number
11:47
Speaker 3: of police per square kilometer for our jurisdiction than any
11:50
Speaker 3: other jurisdiction. We have the highest number of complexities. Our
11:53
Speaker 3: offender rates are the highest in the country. Our victimization
11:56
Speaker 3: rates are the highest in the country. The number of
11:57
Speaker 3: people who are incarcerated are the highest in the country,
12:00
Speaker 3: the people who are on remand as I say, our
12:02
Speaker 3: jails are full. That is the workload that we've got.
12:05
Speaker 3: The productivity Commission work. Unfortunately, when it goes purely on
12:08
Speaker 3: a per capita doesn't appreciate all the complexities that we face.
12:11
Speaker 3: And that's a very real challenge for us now.
12:13
Speaker 1: The Police Minister, when she was on the show earlier
12:15
Speaker 1: in the week that said that she wants to see
12:17
Speaker 1: more boots on the ground and that she's made that
12:19
Speaker 1: very clear to you. Are you guys on the same
12:21
Speaker 1: page here, correct, We've.
12:23
Speaker 3: Been working towards that. But the complexity year is when
12:25
Speaker 3: we've got people who are unable to be deployed, we've
12:28
Speaker 3: got to do further work. When I first came back
12:30
Speaker 3: in in twenty nineteen, I think we had over one
12:32
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty odd people who are unfit for duty.
12:34
Speaker 3: We've got that down to one hundred and twenty. We've
12:36
Speaker 3: managed to get our work environment up for our constables,
12:39
Speaker 3: so we've got pretty much our regional remote areas and
12:41
Speaker 3: our bush stations populated, which has been something we've struggled
12:45
Speaker 3: with for decades. But the pressure point has arrived in
12:47
Speaker 3: Darwin now and we're trying to surge some additional resources.
12:50
Speaker 3: So nineteen of our new graduating constables are currently now
12:53
Speaker 3: based in Darwin. There's another group that will likely have
12:56
Speaker 3: at least sixteen or so graduate by November. And we're
12:59
Speaker 3: trying to encourage more people to look at the return
13:01
Speaker 3: of service back to Darwen because we've unfortunately been to
13:05
Speaker 3: a degree victims of our own success with the regional
13:07
Speaker 3: remote model because they haven't been choosing to come back
13:09
Speaker 3: into Darwin. The other thing is we've got more people
13:11
Speaker 3: starting to come back to us who have left the
13:13
Speaker 3: agency and that's encouraging.
13:14
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, the Minister for Police also said that there
13:17
Speaker 1: is She said obviously there's that full financial review, but
13:20
Speaker 1: also a structural review into the force. Now she's not
13:24
Speaker 1: ruled out a restructure of the force. What do you
13:28
Speaker 1: think that you know that that review into the structure
13:30
Speaker 1: is going to find.
13:31
Speaker 3: So the focus of the review will look at a
13:34
Speaker 3: policing model, but also our foreign emergency services model within
13:37
Speaker 3: the budget that's available. Part of what we've been able
13:40
Speaker 3: to include in the terms of reference is what the
13:42
Speaker 3: jurisdictional comparison is because there has been various growth in
13:45
Speaker 3: many many crime types, cybersecurity, cybercrime, frauds, all of those
13:50
Speaker 3: things are becoming far more prominent issue motivated groups. You've
13:53
Speaker 3: seen that across the country, the move to right wing extrememism.
13:56
Speaker 3: There's all of these things that are front and center
13:58
Speaker 3: now in the Northern Territory that we ordinarily might not
14:00
Speaker 3: have been funded for. So we've got to have those
14:03
Speaker 3: conversations about what is the role that you want police
14:05
Speaker 3: specifically to do, what's the role you want fire to
14:08
Speaker 3: do in emergency services. That may well then be an
14:11
Speaker 3: outcome of that review to determine if we need to
14:13
Speaker 3: go down the pathway of full restructures.
14:15
Speaker 1: So the truth is nothing is actually who is actually
14:19
Speaker 1: conducting that review.
14:20
Speaker 3: So we're going to have an independent consultant that will
14:22
Speaker 3: work with the under Treasurer, myself and three other CEOs
14:27
Speaker 3: from across INTI government.
14:28
Speaker 2: Who chooses who that consultant is, that's.
14:31
Speaker 3: Through treasury, that's going out for release and advertising.
14:36
Speaker 1: You've said there that you know that it's true, that
14:38
Speaker 1: it's not ruling out that there could be a restructure.
14:40
Speaker 1: I mean, do you think that that's going to see
14:42
Speaker 1: change to the upper echelon of the police force?
14:46
Speaker 3: No, I don't. I think what we're talking about is
14:48
Speaker 3: what the demand environment is. If you look at where
14:50
Speaker 3: we've been, we've done a lot of work on our
14:52
Speaker 3: regional remote model, but unfortunately we've had to hold that
14:54
Speaker 3: in draft because the NT Remote Aboriginal Investment again got
14:57
Speaker 3: rolled over for a further two years just prior to
14:59
Speaker 3: the last federal election. That's or no quantum increase, and
15:03
Speaker 3: in fact, what that will see for us is a
15:05
Speaker 3: continuing diminishment of our funding for that model because our
15:09
Speaker 3: wage parameters and growth still continues to occur. The money
15:12
Speaker 3: that we've received since twenty sixteen seventeen, about seventy percent
15:15
Speaker 3: of that has just been our existing business need top up.
15:18
Speaker 1: So it sounds as though you're confident that as both
15:22
Speaker 1: of those reviews take place, both the financial review and
15:24
Speaker 1: also the structural review that you will find or that
15:27
Speaker 1: they will find that what is going on currently with
15:30
Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police Force is exactly how it should be,
15:34
Speaker 1: despite the fact that those survey results are pointing to
15:36
Speaker 1: something very different.
15:38
Speaker 3: What I'm saying is that it will give us the
15:40
Speaker 3: great level of insight to support or be able to
15:44
Speaker 3: have further conversation about the resource challenge. There is no
15:47
Speaker 3: doubt that many of our police officers feel we need
15:50
Speaker 3: more resources. Our Pally model for example, and other springs.
15:53
Speaker 3: We know we've got vacancies there and we've got to
15:55
Speaker 3: have constables there to be able to provide those gaps.
15:58
Speaker 3: But trying to attract people to be hillaries when ultimately
16:01
Speaker 3: they want to become constables is a challenge. And we've
16:04
Speaker 3: been trying to demonstrate to people that if you come
16:07
Speaker 3: in as an auxiliary, it can be a pathway for
16:09
Speaker 3: you and that's proven successful to become a constable. So
16:12
Speaker 3: that works going on. But I think, as you know,
16:15
Speaker 3: the great resignation phenomenon that's been going on, one in
16:18
Speaker 3: five people are talking about changing jobs and moving on.
16:20
Speaker 3: We're staying under that twenty percent model.
16:23
Speaker 2: I've got to be honest.
16:24
Speaker 1: It sort of feels as though I did say this
16:25
Speaker 1: to the Chief Minister as well, and I'll say the
16:27
Speaker 1: same thing to you. It feels as though these, you know,
16:30
Speaker 1: the results of this survey are pointing to one thing.
16:33
Speaker 1: And then you know, we're sort of hearing all the
16:35
Speaker 1: right things from you and from the Chief Minister and
16:38
Speaker 1: from the Police Minister. But you know, there's still people
16:41
Speaker 1: out there that are part of the rank and file
16:42
Speaker 1: of the police force that don't feel confident that their
16:45
Speaker 1: voices are actually being heard.
16:47
Speaker 3: And that's conversation I had with my commission officers, the
16:50
Speaker 3: superintendents and above in the leadership forum that we had
16:53
Speaker 3: in the start of August. I'm trying to ask them,
16:56
Speaker 3: where are these gaps that e rosterring. I think you've
16:59
Speaker 3: heard me speak about it before. We finally got that approved.
17:03
Speaker 3: So the acting CEO DCDD has been driving that for me.
17:07
Speaker 3: I've been ringing him incessantly, so I know he's very
17:09
Speaker 3: happy that that's finally been settled. The team have now
17:11
Speaker 3: started that work. We hope by the start of the
17:13
Speaker 3: new year we can start rolling out that modeling. But
17:16
Speaker 3: that's something I've been driving for over two and a
17:17
Speaker 3: half years, but unfortunately through the procurement pathway, it hasn't
17:20
Speaker 3: come as quickly as I would have liked it to come.
17:22
Speaker 3: But if you step back and look at everything we're doing,
17:24
Speaker 3: and this is what we've been highlighting. We've got the
17:27
Speaker 3: support and wellbeing review work and that's underway. We've got
17:29
Speaker 3: two new chaplains that are coming on board. We've got
17:31
Speaker 3: crowding an honorary chaplaincy service is going to be far
17:34
Speaker 3: more health and well being support in there. We're working
17:36
Speaker 3: on the budget submission for that to grow and be ongoing.
17:39
Speaker 3: We've got five pychs on board who are working very
17:42
Speaker 3: very actively. We're trying to create a greater environment for
17:45
Speaker 3: external syche so there's all that support in place. We're
17:48
Speaker 3: doing a significant amount of work in there. We use
17:50
Speaker 3: the multipurpose facility for a welcome event for recruits. More
17:54
Speaker 3: recently we had an UAK event there yesterday that was
17:57
Speaker 3: really a successful event. We're promoting the things we're doing
18:00
Speaker 3: mental health training, first aid, our promotional systems not being
18:04
Speaker 3: more healthy. We've got many many people applying to go.
18:07
Speaker 3: What we need to keep focusing on is how do
18:09
Speaker 3: we get as many of our people back to work,
18:11
Speaker 3: and now that we're not in a wave of COVID,
18:13
Speaker 3: we're starting to see that return. And with the people
18:15
Speaker 3: we're generating into Darwin as well, we can start balancing
18:17
Speaker 3: Darwen up.
18:18
Speaker 2: Commissioner.
18:18
Speaker 1: If all of that work is happening, and it has
18:20
Speaker 1: been working over the last couple of years, why then
18:23
Speaker 1: do you feel as though you've seen the results that
18:26
Speaker 1: you've seen in that survey and that those officers don't
18:29
Speaker 1: have confidence in you?
18:30
Speaker 3: Because there's been a lot of fortunate white noise that
18:33
Speaker 3: people have had to pick up on. It's generated conversations
18:36
Speaker 3: across the board. You've seen it yourself, Katie. A lot
18:38
Speaker 3: of the commentary that's out there and it's not necessarily
18:41
Speaker 3: based in fact, and we've had a great challenge of
18:43
Speaker 3: being able to counteract that. I've had to be limited
18:46
Speaker 3: in my ability to come out and speak and that's
18:48
Speaker 3: been on the advice of our legal teams as it
18:51
Speaker 3: relates to the various processes that are in place. And
18:53
Speaker 3: the truth of it is, when I have made comment,
18:55
Speaker 3: it's tended to be a lightning rod for some of
18:57
Speaker 3: those hate pages, and they are hate pages.
19:00
Speaker 2: I want to ask you as well. We've seen that.
19:02
Speaker 1: You know, while all of this is going on, last week,
19:05
Speaker 1: we then also learned there was a high level police
19:08
Speaker 1: officer who was charged.
19:10
Speaker 2: We also know that there.
19:11
Speaker 1: Was another arrested, another served a notice to a peer.
19:15
Speaker 1: I believe in total that there was four officers over
19:18
Speaker 1: a very short.
19:19
Speaker 2: Period of time.
19:21
Speaker 1: Do you think that that situation points to a bigger
19:23
Speaker 1: problem within the force?
19:24
Speaker 3: No, I think it was just a point in time
19:26
Speaker 3: that unfortunately, the various people who hold the office of
19:29
Speaker 3: Constable with what they're charged to do, those duties came
19:32
Speaker 3: before them. They are investigations that they had initiated and
19:36
Speaker 3: or had been referred to them. They had them ongoing,
19:38
Speaker 3: and that's how the resolution came.
19:40
Speaker 1: Disappointed that this has happened, I think across.
19:43
Speaker 3: The agency there's a lot of people who are very
19:44
Speaker 3: surprised and disappointed about the behaviors that have come to
19:48
Speaker 3: the forum that have been alleged. It's really disappointing. It's
19:52
Speaker 3: far wide reaching. There's many people affected by these things,
19:55
Speaker 3: as there is always the case when someone that you
19:57
Speaker 3: work with under this area. But again, the community confidence
20:03
Speaker 3: has to be there. Look at what these detectives have
20:05
Speaker 3: been doing.
20:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I do want to talk about that
20:08
Speaker 1: community confidence because it is one of the biggest things
20:10
Speaker 1: that gets raised with us. People understand that the police
20:13
Speaker 1: are working really bloody hard, you know, they know that
20:16
Speaker 1: there is so much happening out there in the community.
20:18
Speaker 1: Though when it comes to crime. You touched on it
20:21
Speaker 1: just a couple of moments ago, you know, the vision
20:23
Speaker 1: that we've seen from Uncle Sam's over the last couple
20:25
Speaker 1: of days.
20:26
Speaker 2: We've got a serious issue.
20:27
Speaker 1: At the moment when it comes to anti So I
20:31
Speaker 1: don't even know if anti social behavior is honestly the
20:33
Speaker 1: right word, because it's totally unacceptable behavior some of what
20:36
Speaker 1: we're seeing. In addition to that, some of the youth
20:38
Speaker 1: crime that we've seen, particularly around the Casarina area. Firstly,
20:44
Speaker 1: what immediate action is happening in this space.
20:47
Speaker 3: Well, again, we've been pushing and the minister's certainly driving
20:50
Speaker 3: this as well. Around that anti social behavior isn't purely
20:53
Speaker 3: a police response. We know we play a very strong
20:55
Speaker 3: role in that and we've been very active in it,
20:57
Speaker 3: but we've managed to see a diminishment in the number
20:59
Speaker 3: of people who are certainly sleeping rough through Darwin. There's
21:02
Speaker 3: current activity going on in Ola Springs as well. The
21:04
Speaker 3: Minister was down there more recently and again challenge some
21:07
Speaker 3: of those ansiderary liquor licenses as to what their contribution
21:11
Speaker 3: to the problem was. That's the type of work that
21:13
Speaker 3: we've been advocating for many, many years. We want to
21:16
Speaker 3: make sure that there is a whole of government approach
21:18
Speaker 3: to this. But also our in GOO sector are well
21:20
Speaker 3: and truly activated. The team in Darwin Travis has been
21:23
Speaker 3: out here speaking to you very regularly. You know the
21:25
Speaker 3: work that they're doing in their space, it's highly activated.
21:28
Speaker 3: Our Trident team are working extremely well. Our unlawful entries
21:32
Speaker 3: are platauing relatively well, certainly not from the highs where
21:35
Speaker 3: we used to see twenty plus a day from a
21:39
Speaker 3: decade plus ago. But the problem is everybody who gets
21:42
Speaker 3: impacted by crime feels it. What's added to it by
21:45
Speaker 3: now is that the social media perpetuates that crime type.
21:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, but look, the thing is it's a difficult one
21:52
Speaker 1: because you've even got a situation where you've got the
21:54
Speaker 1: likes of a grandmar who we'd spoken to a bit
21:56
Speaker 1: over a week ago, who's you know, thirteen year old
21:59
Speaker 1: autistic grants. I'm allegedly belted at the bus exchange. So
22:03
Speaker 1: while there might be that increase in terms of what
22:05
Speaker 1: we see on social media, it's really poor behavior, it.
22:09
Speaker 3: Is, and that grandmother was full of praise of the
22:11
Speaker 3: responding police. They've followed up at least three times with
22:15
Speaker 3: her and that victim. That was a disgusting act. There's
22:19
Speaker 3: no way to dress that up. But the police acted
22:21
Speaker 3: very very quickly. They rounded up that group very very quickly.
22:24
Speaker 3: There's a whole raft of other agencies that sit in
22:26
Speaker 3: behind that that can do certain things. And that's the
22:29
Speaker 3: work that the minister's certainly driving. Because we've been saying
22:32
Speaker 3: we need this help.
22:33
Speaker 2: Do they need to step up?
22:34
Speaker 3: They are stepping up. That's the thing that we're starting
22:37
Speaker 3: to see. But this is an enormous social challenge. And
22:39
Speaker 3: as I talk about, you know, the NT remote Aboriginal
22:42
Speaker 3: Investment only being rolled over for a further two years
22:45
Speaker 3: hasn't set us for the certainty that we need. We've
22:48
Speaker 3: not been able to progress when there's so many of
22:51
Speaker 3: these challenges. What errors, you know, has had some uncertain
22:55
Speaker 3: times collectively as a whole of government, lots of meetings
22:58
Speaker 3: out there, a lot of engagement, a lot more return
23:00
Speaker 3: to country work going on, and things are starting to stabilize.
23:03
Speaker 3: There a lot of work happening with the housing, so
23:05
Speaker 3: agencies are now stepping up. That's appreciated work from us,
23:09
Speaker 3: and that's going to help turn the tide.
23:11
Speaker 2: Commissioner, we are out of time. I do want to
23:13
Speaker 2: ask you.
23:14
Speaker 1: I know right now it is clear that there are
23:16
Speaker 1: some really serious issues and serious concerns from a large
23:19
Speaker 1: number of Northern Territory police. How are you not only
23:23
Speaker 1: going to turn that morale around, but also regain the
23:27
Speaker 1: confidence of the rank and file officers.
23:29
Speaker 3: Again, We're going to focus on our communication within our workplace,
23:32
Speaker 3: with our offices. We've got a heavy focus on our
23:34
Speaker 3: support and well being to make sure people come to
23:36
Speaker 3: the fore We know the next period for this coronial
23:39
Speaker 3: is going to have some bumps in the road, that's foreseeable.
23:42
Speaker 3: We're trying to make sure that we get everybody through
23:44
Speaker 3: that as much as we can and ensure that that
23:47
Speaker 3: sets the direction for the agency going forward, because again,
23:50
Speaker 3: that will critique everything that occurred prior to my return here,
23:53
Speaker 3: and that's what we've got to work on. But we've
23:55
Speaker 3: got many things in place. Look at all the areas
23:58
Speaker 3: that were of concern, We've already got them in place.
24:00
Speaker 3: The disciplinary system, reviews in place, Support and well being
24:03
Speaker 3: work is already well and truly advanced and down the road.
24:06
Speaker 3: We're actively trying to make sure that our resourcing is
24:09
Speaker 3: being pointed to the right place and we're getting those
24:11
Speaker 3: resources where they need to be. It's busy work, it's heavy.
24:14
Speaker 1: Work, but we will turn and commissioner, are you staying put?
24:17
Speaker 1: Are you going to stay in your role?
24:18
Speaker 3: I am.
24:19
Speaker 1: We are going to have to leave it there. Thank
24:21
Speaker 1: you very much for your time this morning. I appreciate it.
24:23
Speaker 3: Thanks Coatie.