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Speaker 1: Joining me in the studio right now is the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Police Commissioner Jamie Chorka.

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Speaker 2: Good morning morning, Commissioner. First off, we.

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Speaker 1: Have learned, or we've certainly heard, excuse me, some details

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Speaker 1: of a terrible incident in the city overnight. A thirty

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Speaker 1: seven year old man has been chased and assaulted. The

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Speaker 1: victim was apparently driving down Peel Street when he was

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Speaker 1: hit from behind by another vehicle. He parked his car

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Speaker 1: before being assaulted by a group of young males that

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Speaker 1: were in the vehicle behind him. Pretty frightening stuff for

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Speaker 1: that gentleman.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, indeed, and that's a matter that's currently under investigation.

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Speaker 4: Obviously, there's some curiosities to those whole circumstances that wouldn't

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Speaker 4: probably constitute what we would think is a normal event.

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Speaker 4: So we'll do our normal work and investigate it diligently

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Speaker 4: to find.

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Speaker 3: The truth of the matter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and we will certainly keep our listeners up to

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Speaker 1: date as a bit further detail comes to hand now, Commissioner.

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Speaker 1: There's been a lot of commentary in recent days following

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Speaker 1: the release of footage by the ABC which shows Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Police officers as allegedly manhandling and threatening a group

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Speaker 1: of youths. The incident happened in Alice Springs Watchhouse during

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Speaker 1: an arrest in twenty eighteen. It has since been the

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Speaker 1: subject of an ombudsman inquiry, but police, well the police,

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Speaker 1: have said that they're unable to reveal disciplinary outcomes of

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Speaker 1: the proceedings. Meanwhile, the Police Association slammed the ABC who

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Speaker 1: obtained and published the footage, describing it as manipulated footage.

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Speaker 1: Commissioners some have found this vision shocking, others have been

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Speaker 1: very supportive of the Northern Territory Police. What steps have

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Speaker 1: you taken as the commissioner, you know, I guess to

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Speaker 1: ensure that this type of thing isn't happening.

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Speaker 3: So across the board.

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Speaker 4: We're very much focused on our role in our professional standards,

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Speaker 4: and I think you've got a critical level of awareness

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Speaker 4: about the bar that I've set across the agency. And

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Speaker 4: that's important for a number of reasons, not just that

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Speaker 4: the public should rightly expect that our behavior is scrutinized,

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Speaker 4: but more appropriately, that our people can achieve those benchmarks.

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Speaker 4: But then, more importantly, for all those very very good

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Speaker 4: police officers that generally come to work every day to

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Speaker 4: try and do the right thing, and I need to

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Speaker 4: make sure that they're operating in an environment where.

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Speaker 3: They are supported across the board.

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Speaker 4: I do, unfortunately, have some police officers that don't always

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Speaker 4: toe the line, that do place themselves well before what

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Speaker 4: the job provides for them and have probably lost a

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Speaker 4: little bit aside of the fact that they're there to

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Speaker 4: make a difference. But overwhelmingly I have far far more

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Speaker 4: police officers that are here for the right reason and

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Speaker 4: they get it.

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Speaker 3: But the point of that.

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Speaker 4: Footage, which I'll continue to go back to, is it

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Speaker 4: highlights a whole lot more than just the actions of

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Speaker 4: that police officer who clearly was at the end of

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Speaker 4: their tether. And people should understand and acknowledge that policing

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Speaker 4: is not an easy job by any stretch. But there

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Speaker 4: was a number of juveniles in a watchhouse that truly

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Speaker 4: should have only ever been designed to receive adults. And

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Speaker 4: as I continue to say, let's do the deeper dive

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Speaker 4: and understand the causation there. Because it's not police and

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Speaker 4: it's not government, there's a whole lot of other issues

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Speaker 4: that are creating that. It's the family environment from the get.

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Speaker 1: Go, just firstly, has that officer been disciplined, so that officer.

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Speaker 4: Has been subject to a complaint against police process. Action

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Speaker 4: has been undertaken in respects of the discipline process, And

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Speaker 4: that's all I'm prepared to say on it, because I

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Speaker 4: have to respect the privacy of that individual.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the Police Association has been scathing of the ABC

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Speaker 1: and has said that they manipulated the vision.

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Speaker 2: Do you believe that that vision's been manipulated?

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Speaker 3: That's not a debate that I'm interested in getting into.

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Speaker 4: Suffice to say that the NTPA rightly looks after and

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Speaker 4: speaks on behalf of the police force and its membership,

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Speaker 4: as I also rightly speak on behalf of my people

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Speaker 4: who are employed to do the job that they do.

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Speaker 4: Policing overwhelmingly is a privilege, and as I say, the

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Speaker 4: very very large majority of my people get that and

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Speaker 4: understand that. But equally, they're human. They are absolutely women.

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Speaker 4: They are subject to vitriol from individuals who they come

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Speaker 4: in contact with, either verbally or by physicality. We've seen

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Speaker 4: the assault on our police officers of a fourteen year

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Speaker 4: old girl. Now, there's not too many humans walking around

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Speaker 4: in the Northern Territory, although sitting in other comfortable locations

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Speaker 4: passing commentary and all of this that subface those rigs

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Speaker 4: each and every day.

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Speaker 1: Well, taking that into account, we know that the Royal Commissioner,

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Speaker 1: one of those involved in the Royal Commission, obviously co

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Speaker 1: chair Mick Gooda and other Aboriginal justice advocates, so calling

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Speaker 1: on you to condemn the vision, will you do that?

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Speaker 4: So I've already indicated that clearly that behavior is not acceptable,

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Speaker 4: but we also have to have a level of compassion

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Speaker 4: and understanding which is sadly seemingly diminished from these commentators.

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Speaker 4: But equally, these commentators who feel they've got an opportunity

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Speaker 4: to speak forward, I don't see them calling out the

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Speaker 4: absolute savage beatings that we have to deal with each

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Speaker 4: and every day, particularly of Aboriginal women. I don't see

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Speaker 4: them raising that as a causation. I see them being

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Speaker 4: whipped up into a frenzy because a youth who's made

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Speaker 4: some threats to assault a police officer with a police

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Speaker 4: officer who was at the end of their tether overreacted

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Speaker 4: and that seems to be the bigger national story. I'm sorry,

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Speaker 4: people aren't telling the truth.

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Speaker 1: Are you frustrated by the fact that you know, as

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Speaker 1: you've touched on there. Obviously, there are a number of

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory police officers who are assaulted every single week.

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Speaker 1: They're spat on, they're kicked, they're punched, they're yelled at,

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Speaker 1: and that's by people of all ages.

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Speaker 2: But then just about three weeks ago.

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Speaker 1: We saw vision emerge from Alice Springs where there was

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Speaker 1: a teenager who allegedly assaulted a female police officer.

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Speaker 2: Are you frustrated that when something.

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Speaker 1: Like that happens you don't have those same calls of

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Speaker 1: condemnation coming out of these groups.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely.

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Speaker 4: I mean, this is a broader issue, and I keep

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Speaker 4: talking about the fact for the need for community. So

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Speaker 4: when people want to jump on one side of the

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Speaker 4: fence or the other and have their posture, they're coming

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Speaker 4: from a position that is their viewpoint only, and it's

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Speaker 4: somewhat ignorant not to appreciate that there's always two sides here.

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Speaker 4: The harsh rareity of policing is we're obliged to understand.

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Speaker 3: Both sides of the story.

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Speaker 4: It's what we do each and every day as we

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Speaker 4: investigate any matter, or we turn up to an event

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Speaker 4: and try and ascertain exactly what's going on. We try

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Speaker 4: and treat what's before us. We try and make sure

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Speaker 4: that everybody is safe upon our first initial attendance, and

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Speaker 4: then we try and search for the truth, and we

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Speaker 4: tend to hold our commentary until the truth has ultimately

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Speaker 4: been provided through the court. That's not the case for

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Speaker 4: social commentators who just want to throw rocks at us.

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Speaker 4: But the truth of the matter is, we also have

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Speaker 4: a whole lot of great interaction with community. We have

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Speaker 4: plenty of images of our police officers driving around communities,

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Speaker 4: including in Darwin and the light, waving to kids, kids

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Speaker 4: interacting with them, kids coming up to them in shopping centers,

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Speaker 4: saying today, there's a whole lot of good things that

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Speaker 4: go on each and every day, but there's also this

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Speaker 4: other end and the other it's a whole lot more

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Speaker 4: focused and understanding because unfortunate in the Northern Territory, it's

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Speaker 4: pervasive across Aboriginal people and the fact that an Aboriginal

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Speaker 4: female is assaulted to the level they are as frequently

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Speaker 4: as they are, let alone my own police officers being

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Speaker 4: assaulted to the level they are. Let's start having that conversation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, and we will talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about some of the one of the initiatives of

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Speaker 1: course that the Northern Territory Police have got underway as

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Speaker 1: well when it comes to domestic violence. Just a little

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Speaker 1: bit more on this though. How are things going in

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Speaker 1: our springs right now?

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Speaker 4: So certainly the work of Viper has made a significant

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Speaker 4: impact on the recidivius defenders. We know that we've been

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Speaker 4: able to identify who those smaller cadre of repeat offenders

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Speaker 4: and they're all currently subject to a number of court

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Speaker 4: processes and the offending as a result is diminished in

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Speaker 4: that regard. However, as we're moving into the school holiday

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Speaker 4: period again, there is a bit of an upswing of

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Speaker 4: youth being out and about in community again. So the

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Speaker 4: broader work that we're doing is to try and make

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Speaker 4: sure that we're coordinating that response of learner is in

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Speaker 4: place for that. They're looking at how they can ensure

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Speaker 4: all the multi agency approaches are in place. You'd be

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Speaker 4: aware there's been an expansion of services to twenty four

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Speaker 4: to seven to start capturing some of those other youths.

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Speaker 4: So I think those things will continue to take some

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Speaker 4: time to gain traction, but there's some positive things going on.

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Speaker 1: There's always quite a bit of talk when we do

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Speaker 1: discuss the issues that we see with youth crime, whether

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Speaker 1: it's Alla Springs, the Northern Suburbs, no matter where it is,

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Speaker 1: whether there needs to be changes to bail.

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Speaker 2: I mean, is that something?

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Speaker 1: Is that something that obviously the police force and you

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Speaker 1: as the Commissioner, would always be hesitant to get into

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Speaker 1: a discussion about whether you know legislative changes need to happen,

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Speaker 1: but is this causing issues?

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Speaker 3: Well, if I just go.

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Speaker 4: To the VIBE for example, so they've been in place

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Speaker 4: since October and they've managed to make significant impact through

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Speaker 4: the arrest and targeting of repeat offenders and that's scene

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Speaker 4: and reduction in some of.

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Speaker 3: The property crime. Now that methodology is working.

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Speaker 4: So that tells me to a degree that our current

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Speaker 4: policy and legislative process enables us to identify those offenders and.

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Speaker 3: Deal with it.

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Speaker 4: But there's a broader body of work that we want

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Speaker 4: to start looking at, particularly as technology is advanced. For example,

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Speaker 4: when we are out about at two or three am

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Speaker 4: in the morning and there are youth there and all

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Speaker 4: of my police officers wearing body worn video, I question

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Speaker 4: whether it's now still a necessity to have a responsible

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Speaker 4: adult standby whilst youth are being searched by police if

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Speaker 4: they believe that they've.

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Speaker 3: Got stolen items or weapons with them.

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Speaker 4: I think all that coverage can be provided by the

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Speaker 4: body worn video to ensure a scrutiny post the event.

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Speaker 4: So there's the type of things that we think we

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Speaker 4: can start having a bit of.

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Speaker 1: A conversation the process. At the moment, They've got to

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Speaker 1: have an adult there. There's got to be an adult there.

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Speaker 3: We're engaging with a youth.

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Speaker 4: Our obligation is to have a support person, a responsible

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Speaker 4: adult with the youth.

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Speaker 1: Where is that adult when they're allegedly breaking into times hensurreas?

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Speaker 3: We need to have some broader conversations, Katie.

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Speaker 2: So that's something that you'd maybe like to see a

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Speaker 2: bit of change in that space.

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Speaker 4: It's one of a number of things that we they're

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Speaker 4: going to look at in that space. But at the

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Speaker 4: end of the day, and it goes to this issue

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Speaker 4: of how do you find a responsible at of at

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Speaker 4: those hours of the day. And then more importantly, we

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Speaker 4: can't have a practice where we just continue to drop

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Speaker 4: kids off who are actually not doing anything unlawful into

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Speaker 4: a place only to see them come back into town

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Speaker 4: late at night without any adults supervision.

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Speaker 2: So where is a breaking down?

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's like, this is the thing I guess

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Speaker 1: that we hear so much on the phones and certainly

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Speaker 1: from our listeners to this show. You know, people call

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Speaker 1: us very regularly about breakins youth crime, and there seems

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Speaker 1: to be real anger between the community and kids that

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Speaker 1: are breaking the law or young people that are breaking

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Speaker 1: the law. The message we hear so loudly and clearly

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Speaker 1: is that people are very supportive of the work that

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police do, but they feel as though

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Speaker 1: it's breaking down somewhere yep.

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Speaker 4: So that appreciation is acknowledged, and we know we have

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Speaker 4: the community support and they certainly know the type of

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Speaker 4: jobs we're dealing with. But I have to say we

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Speaker 4: also rely very heavily on the frontline paramedics. The ambos

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Speaker 4: do an outstanding job coming to deal with the trauma

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Speaker 4: that we get exposed to each and every day, as

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Speaker 4: do the frontline health staff operating in accident emergencies. So

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Speaker 4: when I circle back as to what's part of the

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Speaker 4: causation of youth, I then reflect again on the victimization

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Speaker 4: rate of an Aboriginal female. So the large Cadreve children

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Speaker 4: were unfortunately dealing with their Aboriginal children, and we know

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Speaker 4: that their matriarchs of their families are being assaulted at

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Speaker 4: levels that surpass any other ethnicity in this whole country.

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Speaker 4: And so is it any wonder that kids don't feel

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Speaker 4: safe if they're seeing the matriarch of their family being

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Speaker 4: assauld at not being safe? Now, you've lived in Darwin

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Speaker 4: for a long long period of time. When you walk

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Speaker 4: the streets of the Darwen city, if you're walking through

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Speaker 4: Casurina and you see Aboriginal females, unfortunately, you see many

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Speaker 4: of them carrying the visible scars of a life of trauma.

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Speaker 4: That's where it's all starting from. And that's where we've

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Speaker 4: got to come together collectively as a community to start

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Speaker 4: saying enough's enough.

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Speaker 1: Well, I know the Territory Police have launched Operation Sherman.

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Speaker 1: It is targeting domestic violence and DEVO compliance. How big

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Speaker 1: an issue is this for us in the Northern Territory?

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Speaker 4: Significant a family and domestic violence unfortunately permeates across the

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Speaker 4: whole of the Northern Territory and again we exceed all

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Speaker 4: national standards as it relates to comparisons, So we need

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Speaker 4: to focus on those recidiviust defenders because unfortunately, rarely in

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Speaker 4: family and domestic violence is a number of the offenders

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Speaker 4: are recidivus. So the orders are there to protect the victims,

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Speaker 4: to protect the broader vulnerable people in their families, and

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Speaker 4: we're going to have a heavier focus on compliance to

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Speaker 4: make sure that the opportunity for offenders is diminished even further.

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Speaker 1: Has there been any change over the COVID period? Has

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Speaker 1: it become worse or is it always bad?

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Speaker 4: We saw at early stabilization, but unfortunately we then started

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Speaker 4: seeing an increase, particularly once the biosecurity protections fell away

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Speaker 4: and there was a lot more mobility, and we also

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Speaker 4: saw that conventually rise in alcohol related assaults.

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Speaker 1: I do want to talk about about some of the

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Speaker 1: some of the demands obviously on our Northern Territory police,

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Speaker 1: particularly police on our borders. We heard earlier in the

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Speaker 1: week that that's going to be scaled back to some degree.

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Speaker 1: How big an impact has it had on you trying

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Speaker 1: to juggle everything around the Northern Territory and have police

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Speaker 1: on those borders.

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Speaker 4: Well, it's been enormous. But what we do know that

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Speaker 4: if we hadn't been in that place, we hadn't kept

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Speaker 4: the territory safe from COVID entering our borders and starting

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Speaker 4: to gain community transfer, we would have been far busier.

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Speaker 4: We would have been far busier dealing with a true

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Speaker 4: health pandemic that was likely with all the modeling that

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Speaker 4: we understood from health to take lives to a high.

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Speaker 3: Level, such as the vulnerable cohort that we have.

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Speaker 4: But I have to add the borders has been an

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Speaker 4: enormous part of what we've done, but we've actually been

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Speaker 4: the control authority for the pandemic response, so we have

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Speaker 4: actually coordinated every time the Chief Health Officer has made

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Speaker 4: a direction, we've had to operationalize that. We've had to

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Speaker 4: coordinate all other government agencies to come on board to

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Speaker 4: understand how those directions can be put in place. How

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Speaker 4: do we make sure that everything is running as seamlessly

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Speaker 4: as it can. To the credit of everybody involved from

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Speaker 4: multiple agencies, but particularly our people out at the Emergency

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Speaker 4: Operation Center, the people out at those boarders, the people

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Speaker 4: doing their compliance checks, we've kept the territory safe and

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Speaker 4: that's an absolute testament to their efforts.

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Speaker 2: Commissioner, how is the force feeling.

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Speaker 4: Are they tired? There's no doubt about that. They've been

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Speaker 4: working extremely hard. They've made many, many, many sacrifices across

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Speaker 4: the board, the move to twelve hour shifts, the sacrifice

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Speaker 4: of leave a number of people, particularly when we were

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Speaker 4: in full lockdown, surrendering leave when it was school holidays

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Speaker 4: around June July where they would have ordinarily got to

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Speaker 4: spend time with their family. Many have come from Intero

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Speaker 4: State who have made the territory home, so they're missing

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Speaker 4: family who are into state. They haven't had an opportunity

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Speaker 4: to see them. So you know, it's any wonder that

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Speaker 4: they're feeling tired, but their resilience is something to be

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Speaker 4: absolutely commended. And my suggestion to everyone who's a listener

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Speaker 4: is if you see a police officer, firefighter, emerancy services officer,

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Speaker 4: an ambo a nurse, go and say gooday, go and

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Speaker 4: say thank you for all that you've done in twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty and have a very merry Christmas.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent, they do a phenomenal job. All

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Speaker 1: of those frontline workers right across the board. It's a

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Speaker 1: tough job, There's no doubt about it. We've all had

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Speaker 1: a tough year but when you talk about, you know,

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Speaker 1: the management of well the territory in general, trying to

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Speaker 1: keep us all safe in so many ways. How we

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Speaker 1: did get a question from one of our listeners or

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Speaker 1: somebody raising the issue of ice within the community and

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Speaker 1: wondering whether there is more of it around the place

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 2: What's your intel telling you?

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Speaker 4: So we certainly know throughout lockdown, so there was a

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Speaker 4: bit of a supply issue for those who ordinarily relied

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Speaker 4: on some illictic commodities. Obviously with some freedoms, I would suspect,

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Speaker 4: and we know that there's been a little bit of

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Speaker 4: movement of those commodities back into the territory. Unfortunately, ice

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Speaker 4: in particular is a very dangerous drug. It's certainly one

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Speaker 4: that we highly recommend people do not utilize and become

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Speaker 4: addicted to. But the fact of the matter is alcohol

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Speaker 4: still remains a very very prominent issue for us as

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Speaker 4: it relates to causation of crime. But equally, our drug

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Speaker 4: squad continues to work and they've made some very significant

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Speaker 4: seizures through the course of this year.

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Speaker 1: When you talk about ice, is that something that you

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Speaker 1: know that youths are getting their hands on as well,

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Speaker 1: or is it something that you're more worry about with

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Speaker 1: the adult offenders.

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Speaker 4: We're certainly not seeing a huge uptake of it amongst youth,

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Speaker 4: certainly not from a case of criminality and where we're

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Speaker 4: capturing things. Again, I think it's predominantly an adult drug

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Speaker 4: of choice currently, and again that's something we've got to

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Speaker 4: continue to target on as every other jurisdiction in the

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Speaker 4: country does.

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Speaker 2: Well, Commissioner, we are going to have to get ready

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Speaker 2: to wrap up.

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Speaker 1: I know that you'll be certainly hoping everybody stays safe

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Speaker 1: on the roads and does the right thing over the

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Speaker 1: Christmas break.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, we just do not want to be going and

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Speaker 4: telling families that a loved one has passed away over

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Speaker 4: this period of time. And some may say this is

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Speaker 4: a cliche, it's stated every year. Well, the reason it's

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Speaker 4: stated every year is because unfortunately we see deaths on

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Speaker 4: our OWDs and those deaths.

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Speaker 3: Can not understate it.

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Speaker 4: It causes devastation amongst family, causes devastation amongst community, and

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Speaker 4: it's a simple treatment. If you drive to the speed limit,

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Speaker 4: if you drive appropriately, if you follow the rules, you

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Speaker 4: significantly diminish the likelihood of a fatal accident.

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Speaker 3: It's all on you.

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Speaker 4: We need your help so that you can help my

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Speaker 4: people have a far bitter Christmas period.

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Speaker 1: Certainly we need to make sure that we all look

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Speaker 1: after each other, keep an eye out for each other

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Speaker 1: on the roads and well, we're hoping everybody has a

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Speaker 1: safe Christmas, you included, Commissioner. Thank you for the work

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Speaker 1: that you've done around the territory throughout the year. I

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Speaker 1: know it's been a very big year for you managing

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Speaker 1: the police force and all of the social issues, well

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Speaker 1: not all the social issues, but all the issues we

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Speaker 1: see around the territory.

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Speaker 2: It's a tough job, there's no doubt about it.

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Speaker 4: Thanks Katie, But more credit to all of my people.

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Speaker 4: They've been the ones doing it twenty four hours a day,

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Speaker 4: seven days a week, and I'm deeply appreciative of all

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Speaker 4: of their efforts.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, hats off to all of our Northern Territory police

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Speaker 1: who do a top job. Thank you very much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning, and we'll catch up with you.

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Speaker 2: In the new year.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Cotie.

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Speaker 2: Having Christmas you too.