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Speaker 1: You're listening to Mix one O four nine.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: The Northern Territory Police Association is calling for the immediate

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Speaker 1: reinstatement of the City Safe Patrol Group following yet another

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Speaker 1: assault on a frontline worker. Well in the CBD on

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Speaker 1: the weekend, a member was kicked in the head while

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Speaker 1: attempting to arrest a woman on Edmund Street. As I

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Speaker 1: understand it, the assault is another incident to violence against

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Speaker 1: our Northern Territory police in the last week. And joining

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Speaker 1: me on the line is the Police Association president Paul McHugh.

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Speaker 2: Hi, Paul, good morning, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Well, what is the City Safe Patrol Group?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, look at it used to be a group

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Speaker 2: of police who would patrol the city streets effectively primarily

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Speaker 2: on foot. They would have obviously some vehicles to assist

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Speaker 2: when they needed, but it was a group of police.

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Speaker 2: I would walk through our pubs and clubs in that

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Speaker 2: main area down Mitchell Street and some other city streets

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Speaker 2: and just keeping eye on the general public and you know,

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Speaker 2: walk through the premises, make sure everyone was behaving and

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Speaker 2: obviously assist when things went pair shaped. And you know

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Speaker 2: they haven't been in place for some time now, so why.

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Speaker 1: Did they cease Was it as a result of COVID.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, obviously, primarily you would think because of resourcing pressures.

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Speaker 2: COVID impacted a whole ranger sections and no doubt, you know,

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Speaker 2: they were looking for police to be in vans and

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Speaker 2: one way was to find units such as City Safe

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Speaker 2: and remove them from the streets and put them back

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Speaker 2: in vans. But it's had obviously a detrimental effects sadly well.

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Speaker 1: And we know over the course of the weekend there

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Speaker 1: was obviously the incident where there was a fight, a

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Speaker 1: number of people involved in a fight earlier in the weekend,

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Speaker 1: and then there was the incident where a police officer

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Speaker 1: was assaulted. How big a difference do you think having

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Speaker 1: this group reintroduced, or having this patrol reintroduced would have

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Speaker 1: in situations.

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Speaker 2: Like this, It's an enormous impact.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: Obviously they were high visibility patrols. They would walk up

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Speaker 2: and down the beat. People would know they were there.

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Speaker 2: They'd walk through the nightclubs and pubs. As I've said,

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Speaker 2: you know, patrons knew full well there were police in

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Speaker 2: the CBD. But with the removal of that unit, it

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Speaker 2: put an enormous impact on the front line. You know,

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Speaker 2: our general duty's often down to one van on a

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Speaker 2: night shift, as was the case when this assault took place.

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Speaker 2: So from our perspective, it not only was an unsafe

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Speaker 2: workplace for our members, but of course the community suffered

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Speaker 2: because there were a lack of resources to assist. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's really a dangerous situation when you've got

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Speaker 2: alcohol fuel violence. You've got you know, many many members

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Speaker 2: of the public there topped up on Grogham. They want

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Speaker 2: to become heroes and they want to egg on anyone

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Speaker 2: who's having a crack at the police, and of course

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Speaker 2: it becomes a very dangerous situation for our troops on

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Speaker 2: the beat.

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Speaker 1: Paul, have you had any updates on how that police

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Speaker 1: officer is going at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I believe he's doing okay, but obviously a

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Speaker 2: very dangerous situation when he was attacked, and of course

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Speaker 2: then other members of the public thought, you know, they

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Speaker 2: try and be heroes as well, and of course they

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Speaker 2: had to resort to trying to get back up from

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Speaker 2: another sector within Darwin, you know. But it's just one

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Speaker 2: of many assaults, as we've spoken about recently, you know,

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Speaker 2: from Alice Springs Catherine poor keats Tenant Creek. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's happening far too often, and you know, and we're

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Speaker 2: coming up to the tourist season, We're coming up to

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Speaker 2: the dry season. We're going to see a whole bunch

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Speaker 2: of more people now with borders open up, and you know,

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Speaker 2: we need more police on the beat than ever before.

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Speaker 1: So do you feel as though these incidents do expose

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Speaker 1: a lack of police resources within our CBD.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, obviously, you know there's no doubt when the

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Speaker 2: City Safe Patrol ceased to exist and our other social

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Speaker 2: auto patrol units cease to exist, it put all the

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Speaker 2: pressure back onto our general duties police, who are you

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Speaker 2: sadly struggling at the moment to get more than one

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Speaker 2: to two vans on the road And quite regularly I'm

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Speaker 2: hearing of only one van in the Darwin sector. Now,

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Speaker 2: remember Darwin doesn't just include with the CBD. It goes

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Speaker 2: all the way out to the new Naiklus station and

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Speaker 2: many other areas around the city, so you know, it's

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Speaker 2: a huge area to cover. And let's not forget impacting

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Speaker 2: this as well as the closure of the Darwen Watchhouse.

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Speaker 2: So if that unit was to make an arrest or

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Speaker 2: apprehend somebody. You know, they're heading out to Palmerston for

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Speaker 2: probably an hour and a half. And I'm not trying

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Speaker 2: to be alarmist here, but you know, this is the

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Speaker 2: reality of what our people are facing. You know, the

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Speaker 2: general duties and other sections are facing in the Dalen

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Speaker 2: area at the moment and other areas within the police Paul, the.

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Speaker 1: Issue of public drunkenness is something that we've spoken about

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Speaker 1: on so many occasions on this show. In fact, I

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Speaker 1: would say it's been one of the biggest issues since

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Speaker 1: the beginning of the year. Now, I don't mean sort

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Speaker 1: of you know what we've spoken about this morning in

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Speaker 1: terms of outside licensed venues, you know, or around that precinct,

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Speaker 1: but I mean some of the issues that we're seeing

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Speaker 1: as well with anti social behavior just in the streets

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Speaker 1: through the day and night. We know that we've got

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Speaker 1: a lot of people in town from other communities. What

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Speaker 1: impact is that having do you think on our police

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Speaker 1: at the moment, and could we be doing things a

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Speaker 1: bit differently.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it's an enormous impact across the board really

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Speaker 2: because obviously the more more incidents that take place on

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Speaker 2: the streets and more drunken behavior, the more assaults, you know,

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Speaker 2: that impacts on resourcing dramatically, not just for general duties,

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Speaker 2: but for our crime members, our forensic people. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it impacts across the board. And so the more we

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Speaker 2: can do it in the proactive space, having city safe units,

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Speaker 2: having Social order units, it can really impact at the

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Speaker 2: front end and try and reduce that back end additional

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Speaker 2: work required when assaults and crimes do take place. So

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Speaker 2: the more we can do at the front end, the better.

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Speaker 2: And obviously there's no doubt I'm positive that police management

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Speaker 2: would be certainly looking at this right now and thinking

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Speaker 2: how can we find additional resources to make this happen.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure.

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Speaker 1: Well, just very quickly, can you tell us what the

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Speaker 1: Social order units were and you know how long it's

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Speaker 1: been since they've been operational.

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Speaker 2: There are another obvious impact of COVID. Social Order primarily

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Speaker 2: consisted of police offices and Aboriginal community police officers based

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Speaker 2: out of the old Nightclis station and they would each day,

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Speaker 2: work day and evening shift in all sectors of Darwin,

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Speaker 2: just really focusing on the drunken behavior or social social

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Speaker 2: order problems. And you know when that disbanded of course

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Speaker 2: that was further impacting our general duties. So you just

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Speaker 2: simply don't have the time or the resources to be

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Speaker 2: doing that, as well as there are other jobs they

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Speaker 2: are required to attend to.

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Speaker 1: So it does sound as though, and I mean I

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Speaker 1: know that the Northern Territory government has obviously got some

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Speaker 1: serious work to do in this space. It does sound

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Speaker 1: as though there are a few levers though that could

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Speaker 1: be pulled, even from the police perspective.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. And look, I'm almost certain industries such

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Speaker 2: as hospitality and those people that represent a lot of

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Speaker 2: these alcohol establishments would be supportive of that. I'm sure

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Speaker 2: the last thing they want to see is his drunken

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Speaker 2: behavior turn pear shaped out on the streets. And of

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Speaker 2: course we want to make sure that people are safe,

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Speaker 2: and one way to do that is to reintroduce units

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Speaker 2: such as City so Well.

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Speaker 1: Police Association President Paul Mchew, we always appreciate your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having a chat with us

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: No problem, Katie, cheers.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,