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Speaker 1: New data reveals an average of four police officers are

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Speaker 1: assaulted each week in the NT, but the Police Association

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Speaker 1: say that number could actually be a lot higher. To

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Speaker 1: talk more about it is the ant Police Association president

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Speaker 1: Paul Mcue. Paul, good morning, very good morning, ready, Paul,

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Speaker 1: Can you talk us through some of these statistics when

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Speaker 1: it comes to assaults on officers as revealed in estimates

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Speaker 1: last week.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, obviously it's always a topic of discussion, sadly

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Speaker 2: that our officers on duty out there are being assaulted

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Speaker 2: at an alarming rate. Really and when we look at the

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Speaker 2: five year average of around two hundred and forty five

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Speaker 2: assaults each year on police officers in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 2: it's a shameful statistic when you think about the work

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Speaker 2: that they're out there doing in the dangers. They put

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Speaker 2: themselves in front just to serve and protect the community. So,

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Speaker 2: you know, there were some stats read out last week

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Speaker 2: during estimates. We know, you know, saying that that ninety

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Speaker 2: four a week of being older. We know through some

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Speaker 2: research with our members the figure is likely to be

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Speaker 2: high than that, given some do go unreported, some that

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Speaker 2: you could potentially say at the lower end of the scale.

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Speaker 2: But you know, in our view, any assault should be reported.

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Speaker 2: Any assault is unacceptable and there needs to be there

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Speaker 2: needs to be some work done around the sentencing of

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Speaker 2: people who take it upon themselves to attack one of

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Speaker 2: our front line.

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Speaker 1: Paul, why do you think it is that some of

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Speaker 1: these assaults and officers may be going unreported.

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Speaker 2: Look, I guess you know when you talk about the

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Speaker 2: amount of jobs at police attend every single day through

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Speaker 2: the territory. Let's take domestic violence for example, it's one

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Speaker 2: of the most dangerous jobs that police can attend. They

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Speaker 2: are very unpredictable, very emotional, and people's emotions are very

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Speaker 2: much elevated at those types of jobs. You know, our

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Speaker 2: police attend a roughly sixty seven of those at times

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Speaker 2: per day in the Northern Territory. I mean, it is

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Speaker 2: horrenders to think that that's that's the type of work

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Speaker 2: that they have to do each day, and so it

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Speaker 2: is not uncommon for police, you know, to be punched,

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Speaker 2: spat at, kicked. You know, people are emotional, they could

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Speaker 2: be on drugs, they could be highly intoxicated, and I

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Speaker 2: just don't think about their actions at the time. But

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what it has a huge impact on

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Speaker 2: those officers that are subject to those assaults.

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Speaker 1: Paul, what is the nature of some of these assaults.

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Speaker 1: I mean, in some cases, are officers being left with

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Speaker 1: serious or long term injuries.

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Speaker 2: Very much so. I mean, you know, over the course

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Speaker 2: of the last few years, we've seen, you know, one

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Speaker 2: of our members, you know, stabbed in the neck down

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Speaker 2: there at Jabaru with a screwdriver. We've seen one of

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Speaker 2: our officers hit by a vehicle when they're just simply

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Speaker 2: going to execute a warrant. And that office is lucky,

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Speaker 2: lucky to be alive today, but has long term, you know,

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Speaker 2: impacts that's going to affect them for the rest of

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Speaker 2: their life. It can sometimes lead to an officer not

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Speaker 2: being able to work as a police officer anymore. I mean,

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Speaker 2: that's their career on and these are some of the

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Speaker 2: effects they're having. I mean, we've been told as recently

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Speaker 2: as last week, there's one patrol group down there in

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs is around ten members on that patrol group.

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Speaker 2: Seven of that particular one group we're assaulted in a

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Speaker 2: twelve day period to the tune of punching to the face, bidding, kicking,

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Speaker 2: et cetera. So these are horrendous stats and it's not

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Speaker 2: acceptable to stand there and say, you know, they're in

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Speaker 2: a dangerous job, they're going to be assaulded. Well, that's

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Speaker 2: not good enough. There needs to be a community a

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Speaker 2: message sent to those who are actually undertaking those assaults.

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Speaker 1: When we talk about sending a message to those who do,

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Speaker 1: I mean, what penalties are currently in place for assaults

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Speaker 1: on police at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's no minimum mandatory sentencing. There's no you know,

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Speaker 2: it's very difficult at times to prove even harm to

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Speaker 2: an officer and therefore there's no course of action under

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Speaker 2: the Sentencing Act to you know, put offenders inside period

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Speaker 2: of time. They can simply walk out of court essentially

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Speaker 2: scott free, after undertaking a serious assault on one of

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Speaker 2: our officers. And we know the government are very keen

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Speaker 2: to talk to us. We've keen to talk to them,

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Speaker 2: and we've had these discussions and the lead up to

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Speaker 2: the last election around sentencing for these particular types of

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Speaker 2: assaults and it's something that we're certainly progressing as quickly

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Speaker 2: as as we can, and certainly in the new year

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Speaker 2: will have a proposal for government to look.

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Speaker 1: At that'll be a certainly good to say. And what

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Speaker 1: has the legislation been like? Is this long overdue or

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Speaker 1: is it something that the government have addressed gradually over

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Speaker 1: the years. I mean, when's the last time we saw

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Speaker 1: changes around this space for penalties on assaults on officers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, it hasn't been a long It's been far

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Speaker 2: too long, we should say. You know, we've had other

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Speaker 2: jurisdictions around the country, such as Western Australian Victoria take

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Speaker 2: the lead in this space where they have implemented some

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Speaker 2: tough penalties in terms of sentencing for assaults on their

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Speaker 2: police officers, and we certainly can team for the government

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Speaker 2: to look at that and see whether that's appropriate in

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory. When you talk about a police officer

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Speaker 2: putting up with an assault, you know, I mean, let's

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Speaker 2: face it, it's almost every single day out there, then

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Speaker 2: there needs to be a strong message and that does obviously,

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Speaker 2: you know, talk about police, it's also our ambulance officers

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Speaker 2: and doctors and nurses and so forth. They're all often

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Speaker 2: subject to these arendous assaults.

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Speaker 1: Col do you think these assaults are having an effect

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Speaker 1: on recruitment efforts?

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Speaker 2: Look? Look, I minus and it's still strong. They're going

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Speaker 2: out and obviously getting plenty of interest in recruitment. But

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Speaker 2: it's the length of time police are spending in the

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Speaker 2: job these days which is a real concern. You know.

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Speaker 2: It's our understanding that the length of service for a

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Speaker 2: police officers down or around six or seven years. That's it,

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Speaker 2: that's all we're seeing. I think police are coming into

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Speaker 2: the role. They they're bright eyed, bushy tailed, and they

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Speaker 2: want to get into it and then they soon find

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Speaker 2: a WESA. A video posted recently online two of a

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Speaker 2: horrendous assult on two of our officers down there, analyis

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Speaker 2: you know, the female officer had a hair pull pulled

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Speaker 2: to the ground punched. You know, it doesn't take a

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Speaker 2: lot of those for members to start saying, well is

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Speaker 2: this job? Is this the job for me? I'm not

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Speaker 2: important as a community's punching bag and I'm not going

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Speaker 2: to put up with it, So we don't you know

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Speaker 2: that length of service is a real concern, Paul.

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Speaker 1: I know that's a conversation you've been having. We talk

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Speaker 1: about length of service and attrition rates both on air

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Speaker 1: with Katie and the Police Minister for probably the best

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Speaker 1: part of six months or so. Now what's been the

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Speaker 1: outcome of those conversations. Is there any hope that I

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Speaker 1: guess putting in place tougher penalties on assaults for offices

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Speaker 1: would go some way to addressing some of those issues

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Speaker 1: around attrition rates. But how have those conversations been with

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Speaker 1: the police minister?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, they've been positive. Obviously, we're doing some of

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Speaker 2: our own work at the moment in terms of the

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Speaker 2: reasons police are leaving the job. Where we're touching base

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Speaker 2: with some of those officers who have left already to

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Speaker 2: get get some of the reasons. Some have been quite

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Speaker 2: frank and honest about their views of how things are

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Speaker 2: going in the police force at the moment, and we

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Speaker 2: want to get some of that good statistical data together

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Speaker 2: to sit down with the Minister and the commissioner and say, well,

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Speaker 2: you know, this attrition rates high, here's some of the reasons,

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Speaker 2: and let's see how you're going to address it, because

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Speaker 2: it's a concern at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Just finally, Paul at Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says police

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Speaker 1: have identified the ring leaders in a youth crime spree

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Speaker 1: in Alice Springs. From your understanding, is that the case

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Speaker 1: and will this hopefully go go a long way to

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Speaker 1: quell some of those issues we're seeing in the town

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, obviously Strike Force VIPA down there has done

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Speaker 2: an incredible job to the tune of it's been up

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Speaker 2: and running for a couple of months now. You know,

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Speaker 2: one hundred and fifteen youths apprehended, and as the Commission's

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Speaker 2: pointed out, some of those obviously ring leaders that have

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Speaker 2: been multiple offending on multiple occasions, and you know, it

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Speaker 2: just really takes the great work that the rest of

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Speaker 2: the police down there have been doing for years really

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Speaker 2: around this youth issue and youth crime issue, and hopefully

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Speaker 2: we'll see some positive effects of some of those ring

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Speaker 2: leaders being remanded and being brought before the courts of

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Speaker 2: some of the horrendous crimes they're doing. Because the community

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Speaker 2: feels unsafe and there needs to be consequences, as the

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Speaker 2: government keep pointing out, there needs to be actual consequences

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Speaker 2: for those doing those unlawful actions.

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Speaker 1: How our officers feeling in Nalla Springs and I guess

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Speaker 1: in Darwin as well. It's right across the territory coming

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Speaker 1: into the school holiday period of time where we do

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Speaker 1: traditionally see peaks, particularly around youth crime. How are officers feeling.

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Speaker 2: That they're tired. I'll be quite frank, they're tired. They've

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Speaker 2: had a huge year in terms of the response to

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Speaker 2: COVID and the requirements you know, of what's been required

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Speaker 2: just to keep border checkpoints in place. They've had multiple

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Speaker 2: officers have had to cancel a lot of their leave,

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Speaker 2: in fact all of it at times over the Christmas

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Speaker 2: New Year period. They don't get to spend it with

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Speaker 2: their family. They don't get to go away and spend

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Speaker 2: it like some other people do. And it's a real

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Speaker 2: shame because they've put in the hard yards. They're professional lot,

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Speaker 2: they do a great job and they're just really tired

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Speaker 2: at the moment and some of them need a break

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Speaker 2: sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there's anyone who needs a break at the end

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Speaker 1: of this year, to be anti police officers, I centainly

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Speaker 1: had that comes sooner rather than later for them. Anti

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Speaker 1: Police Association President Paul mcew will have to leave it there.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time this morning. That's

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Speaker 1: the Anti Police Association President Paul mcewe.

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Speaker 2: There