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Speaker 1: An announcement yesterday that the Northern Territory Police are going

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Speaker 1: to offer twenty thousand dollars in relocation bonuses in an

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Speaker 1: effort to recruit officers to the Northern Territory. Joining me

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Speaker 1: in the studio to tell us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about the announcement is the Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time this morning. Measure now,

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Speaker 1: Acting Commissioner, how will this work.

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Speaker 2: So at the moment, obviously, recruitment across Australia with law

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Speaker 2: enforcements very competitive. There's employment rates obviously post COVID at

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Speaker 2: challenging as well. We're quite lucky in the territory. We

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Speaker 2: still attract a cohort to fill our recruit squads. But

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Speaker 2: we want to want more police. We want more people

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Speaker 2: to come and join our ranks in the Northern Territory Police.

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Speaker 2: So to do that we need to be really competitive

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Speaker 2: and we need to offer more incentives. We're really handsomely

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Speaker 2: remunerated with salary. We've got free housing, either free housing

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Speaker 2: or housing alloune, which basically outweighs a lot of other

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Speaker 2: jurisdictions as well, which is quite attractive for the territory.

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Speaker 2: But to get people to the territory. Previously it was

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Speaker 2: about a five thousand to eight thousand dollars grant, which

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Speaker 2: sometimes is not enough for a person to relocate with

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Speaker 2: their family. So we're going to increase that to twenty

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars and we're exploring how that's going to look

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Speaker 2: because I'd rather get an invoice in rather than someone

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Speaker 2: being out of pocket because a young person or a

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Speaker 2: young couple might I'll be able to affworard fifteen thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars in a movement. So we want to work through

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Speaker 2: that process now. But basically that decision is effective immediately.

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Speaker 1: And I mean if it meant that somebody could move

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Speaker 1: from into state, or even could they move from somewhere

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Speaker 1: like New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. We've just had a ten officers sworn in and

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Speaker 2: the accelerated recruit so officers that have served across law

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Speaker 2: enforcement in Australia New Zealand got sworn in a couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks ago. A few New Zealander is there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And you sort of think to yourself, you know,

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Speaker 1: if we can get people from other states or from

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Speaker 1: somewhere like New Zealand. Surely that would be a good thing,

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Speaker 1: and that twenty thousand dollars does seem to be It

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Speaker 1: seems to be generous, but it needs to be I

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Speaker 1: think at this point to try to entice people to

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory rather than some of those other states.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, like the different law enforcement, different lens, diversity

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Speaker 2: in thought, getting exposure that senior leadership from other experiences

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Speaker 2: across law enforcement, it's going to be really available to

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Speaker 2: the territory. Equally is having territorians apply for the job too,

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Speaker 2: So we usually have a pretty high number of Territorians

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Speaker 2: that get recruited. So I order all territorians you want

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Speaker 2: to join the police force, the fire service, the emergency service,

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Speaker 2: put an application in, come join the ranks and continue

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Speaker 2: to make a difference in the community safe.

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Speaker 1: Is there any kind of bonus for them? Then if

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Speaker 1: they're relocating, let's say from Alice Springs to Darwit, that

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Speaker 1: same applies.

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Speaker 2: So if they move. And obviously we're moving our posture

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Speaker 2: around recruitment for deployment out of the college. So historically

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Speaker 2: everyone out of the college went to Catherine Tenant and

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Speaker 2: allis the next squad graduating a nine June will do that.

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Speaker 2: They go twenty to Ours Springs as thirteen to Catherine

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Speaker 2: and two to Tenant Creek. Squad one fifty one will

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Speaker 2: be a mixed so the staff will the instructing staff

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Speaker 2: will talk to the crew there and probably look at

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Speaker 2: fifty percent into Darwin so he can put some more

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Speaker 2: resourcing to Darwin to increase policing operations here. The Squad

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Speaker 2: one fifty two is the accelerated recruits, So there's nine

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Speaker 2: Indolas Springs and one on Rain in Darwin. So that's

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Speaker 2: your senior officers from around other jurisdictions.

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Speaker 1: And I know one of the other things that's been

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Speaker 1: raised previously is that for some of those new recruits,

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Speaker 1: having to spend that time out Bush could be seen

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Speaker 1: as a bit of a deterrent. Some people love going

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Speaker 1: out and love the idea of remote policing, but others

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Speaker 1: it might be a deterrent, particularly if it's somebody with

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Speaker 1: the young family. Let's say, are you looking at things

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Speaker 1: like that as well to maybe try to make it

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Speaker 1: more attractive for people to join the force.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, I've spoken to people who wanted to apply for constable,

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Speaker 2: but they haven't because of that very reason. They've got

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Speaker 2: to consider spousal employment. They've got health needs for family

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Speaker 2: members and the education for young kids. So we need

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Speaker 2: to be flexible and we need to apply some thinking

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Speaker 2: to say, when's the right time for you to serve

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Speaker 2: the community in a remote location. It might be when

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Speaker 2: the kids are at a certain age before primary school,

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Speaker 2: it might be after they finished school. So I think

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Speaker 2: we can't be set in our thinking too much. We

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Speaker 2: need to be flexible with the workforce to say, you know,

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Speaker 2: we want people to go out Bush, we want people

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Speaker 2: to go and serve the northern territory, but there is

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Speaker 2: a time and a need that they need to remain

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Speaker 2: in Darwin too, look after their lives and their family

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, previously on the show, the Chief Minister had

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Speaker 1: told us that there was a large number of officers

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Speaker 1: on leave. Now she'd said that that number was in

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Speaker 1: the hundreds. Commissioner, how many officers are on leave or

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Speaker 1: do you have an idea of that number and are

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Speaker 1: you making some efforts to get them back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's probably a couple of layers there. So

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Speaker 2: we've got any one time about between two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty and three hundred and fifty officers on recreational long

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Speaker 2: service leave. That's well deserved leave because their officers are

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Speaker 2: working tirelessly and very hard and they need a break.

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Speaker 2: We've obviously had a backlog from COVID as well, so

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Speaker 2: we're actually allowing people to take their leave so they

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Speaker 2: can actually do some of the travel they had canceled

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Speaker 2: during COVID. A lot of leave was canceled because of

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Speaker 2: the demand on the police force, were border controls and

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Speaker 2: other operations during COVID meeting normal police demand. So on

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Speaker 2: top of that, we've got over one hundred officers who

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Speaker 2: are on long leave, which is an access to sick leave,

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Speaker 2: which is either could be psychological or physical injury. So

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Speaker 2: there's a list being managed through the executive so contacts

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Speaker 2: made with them and the most appropriate way. Some of

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Speaker 2: those officers won't be returning. They just can't come back

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Speaker 2: to policing. Some will through rehabilitation and that physical side,

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Speaker 2: but there's work underway to try and get people back

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Speaker 2: to work that we can. In that cohord of over

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Speaker 2: one hundred. We're going to announce the well baying strategy

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Speaker 2: this month. We've had some significant work in our well

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Speaker 2: Banning strategy. It's about promoting, supporting, protecting our people right

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Speaker 2: through from recruitment stage, through the workforce and actually transitioning

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Speaker 2: out of policing. So if someone can't be a police

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Speaker 2: officer for the trauma they've seen through their servers, then

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Speaker 2: we can support them in a pathway to go to

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Speaker 2: another form of employment right their CV. We work with

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Speaker 2: Fordham Australia as well, incredible work. So we're really investing

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Speaker 2: in the well being strategy. So that will be announced

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Speaker 2: in Dawen next week and then other springs on the

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Speaker 2: twenty fourth.

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Speaker 1: And is there a bit of room for flexibility there?

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Speaker 1: I mean for some of those hundred people that are

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Speaker 1: on long leave, particularly if it's maybe for mental health

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Speaker 1: reasons or there's certain elements of the job that you know,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. But let's say somebody has been a

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Speaker 1: traffic officer and they've seen some extreme trauma, or somebody's

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Speaker 1: worked in the area of domestic violence. Could there be

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Speaker 1: an opportunity for their role to be modified or for

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Speaker 1: them to change their job so that you're able to

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Speaker 1: get that experience and get them back into the force

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Speaker 1: but be utilized in a different way.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, so if there's certain harms and you're right, we

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Speaker 2: see lots of trauma road policing. Last year we saw

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Speaker 2: fifty two road deaths, twelve were pedestrians. You know, we've

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Speaker 2: seen an average of forty people die on the roads

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Speaker 2: in across the territory, which is a huge number of

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Speaker 2: people for a small population, and up to five hundred

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Speaker 2: serious crash injuries. This week is National Road Safety Week,

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Speaker 2: so it's a really important reminder to all road users

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Speaker 2: to take care on the roads, adhere to the you

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Speaker 2: know what the fatal five are. Make sure your vehicle safe,

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Speaker 2: make sure you drive to conditions, make sure you're not

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Speaker 2: affected by any substances. Don't be distracted through your mobile phone,

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Speaker 2: don't speed, were your seat belt, all the really fundamental

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Speaker 2: basics to drive to survive. So people that see trauma

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Speaker 2: police officer at sea trauma, it may not impact them

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Speaker 2: straight away. It could be a number of issues. It

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Speaker 2: could be the domestic violence, it could be infant death.

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Speaker 2: But you know, we have a responsibility as an employer

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Speaker 2: to make sure we look after and care for our

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Speaker 2: people and place him in a location that they can

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Speaker 2: be supported on a return to work.

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Speaker 1: Now, on that I mean between two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: obviously on long service and recreational leave, one hundred on

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Speaker 1: long leave. It's a big number for you to be

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Speaker 1: juggling in terms of keeping your workforce agile and making

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Speaker 1: sure that there are enough police officers on the streets

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Speaker 1: to sort of meet the demand that all the community's expectations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and that comes down to the management teams.

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Speaker 2: So there are thresholds in place about how many ranks

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Speaker 2: and how many officers can be away in command. So

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Speaker 2: it's not like there's two hundred away from Darwin. It's

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Speaker 2: equally spread across all the commands across the territory, so

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Speaker 2: it's managed so we've always got their response capability across

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Speaker 2: in Oldthern territory.

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Speaker 1: Now, my understanding is that there are some officers who've

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Speaker 1: maybe been on discipline re leave as well. I'm not

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Speaker 1: expecting you to go into any detail on that, but

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Speaker 1: are you looking at bringing any of those people back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a conversation. I've actually spoken to Lisa Balas today.

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Speaker 2: So there are officers that are subjected to directed leave

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Speaker 2: or maybe suspended. So we're working through getting more tribunal

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Speaker 2: chairs appointed so we can move through some of these

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Speaker 2: that have been maybe delayed or a bit long. So

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Speaker 2: we want to get officers back on deck to do

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Speaker 2: their job, what they want to do, what they're employed

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Speaker 2: to do. So it is. And the other thing we're

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Speaker 2: doing is a discipline review, So we want to move

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Speaker 2: from a disciplinary framework, a punitive sort of direction, to

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Speaker 2: a performance management one. When there is serious breaches of

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Speaker 2: discipline or criminal acts, that's a different consideration. But there's

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Speaker 2: a lot, a lot of the probably dispar reactions that

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Speaker 2: could be moved into performance management and that well being space.

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Speaker 2: So it's a bit a change in direction, a bit

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Speaker 2: of change in thinking, but that's a work in progress

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Speaker 2: at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Now let's talk about those issues that we're facing around

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory. Around crime. It has become a massive

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Speaker 1: concern for a lot of territorians. I know that, you

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Speaker 1: know that, and certainly it's not a point that's lost

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Speaker 1: on our police officers who have to go out to

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Speaker 1: those incidents every single day. But there has been four

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Speaker 1: stabbings this year, those four lives lost. Last week we

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Speaker 1: had twenty nine cars stolen and more than thirty break ins.

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Speaker 1: Massive concerns of course around domestic violence. There are a

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Speaker 1: lot of issues that the Northern Territory Police are dealing with.

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Speaker 1: What's your biggest priorities as the acting Police Commissioner Because

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Speaker 1: a lot of people have felt that that community safety

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Speaker 1: has been lost and their sense of safety on the

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Speaker 1: streets or going about their daily lives has been lost.

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Speaker 1: So I guess what reassurance can you sort of give

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory community that do you hit the ground

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Speaker 1: running and what are your priorities?

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Speaker 2: I think the main priority is a safe Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: and looking after the citizens and suppressing crime and holding

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Speaker 2: those people accountable for committing crime to the court. Hit

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Speaker 2: the nail on the head. Our police officers work tirelessly

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Speaker 2: and very hard. We are part of the community. When

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Speaker 2: we see people get hurt or killed, or their house

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Speaker 2: is broken into, or their second largest that' set being

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Speaker 2: their motivehicle stolen, that hurts us. So we do everything

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Speaker 2: we can. We've got our detectives working hard. We see

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Speaker 2: the results from Viper and tried it. We've seen the

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Speaker 2: swift results overnight from Alice Springs and the style of

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Speaker 2: motor vehicle through the use of drones, using smarter techniques,

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Speaker 2: policing techniques to detect, defending, prevent it and actually action

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Speaker 2: it and arrest people who are responsible and put them

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Speaker 2: before the court. The courts are very busy, you know.

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Speaker 2: We're consistently working with Matt Valley to work through their

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Speaker 2: correctional space as well, because there's a lot of people

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Speaker 2: being remanded under the new provisions of the law with

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Speaker 2: the knives and the edge and the harm to community.

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Speaker 2: So we'll do everything we can. So the main thing

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Speaker 2: is is keeping the community safe, listening to what the

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Speaker 2: community needs and understanding what the problem is and addressing it.

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Speaker 2: Not just as a policing agency like we will always

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Speaker 2: enforce on law and arrest people who do the wrong thing.

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Speaker 1: And it actually sounds as though as well some of

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Speaker 1: those staffing issues if you can get to the bottom

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Speaker 1: of those and make sure that you've got enough police

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Speaker 1: on the ground doing their job, that that will help also.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And the other aspect we're looking at is,

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Speaker 2: you know, we've talked about the separations across the Northern

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Speaker 2: Terretiary Police of around four hundred. It's a really high

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Speaker 2: attrition rate in the last three years. So I'm asking

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Speaker 2: for those officers who want to return to the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory Police to come back to our ranks. Let us

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Speaker 2: know if you're interested. I'm working with the association now

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Speaker 2: about being flexible about reappointing to certain ranks without disenfranchising

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Speaker 2: or not allowing obviously opportunity for those officers in our

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Speaker 2: ranks that are going to be sergeants and senior sergeants

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Speaker 2: and superintendent. So we're just working through that at the moment.

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Speaker 2: But to bring someone who's only left twelve months ago

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Speaker 2: as a senior sergeant back into the ranks as critical

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Speaker 2: for leadership. They've got a wealth of knowledge, We've invested

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Speaker 2: and then we've trained them. They've been outside the force.

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Speaker 2: We want them to come back. We want constables to

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Speaker 2: come back. So we're just extending an imitation. If you're

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Speaker 2: interested in coming back to the Northern Churchy Police, please

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Speaker 2: let us know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I think that there probably are some listening

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Speaker 1: this morning who might think to themselves that you know

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Speaker 1: definitely are Yeah, you sound as though you are making

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Speaker 1: sure that that work is getting underway to try and

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Speaker 1: bring some of those people back, which I hope is

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Speaker 1: a good thing. Now, I just want to talk about

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Speaker 1: some of these young gangs that we seem to have

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Speaker 1: around the place at the moment, some of them sharing

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Speaker 1: this information on social media. I don't actually want to

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Speaker 1: name them because I don't think that they deserve that

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Speaker 1: kind of notoriety or publicity. But we know, I think

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Speaker 1: most of us know the group that I'm talking about.

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Speaker 1: What work are the police undertaking to get control of

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Speaker 1: those people who seem to sort of have no respect

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Speaker 1: for anyone in the community all their property at the moment.

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Speaker 2: So there's obviously a lot of engagement too. And some

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Speaker 2: of these young people are in community in Doe and

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Speaker 2: they're also in communities outside of Dowen. Our remote police

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Speaker 2: are working tirelessly to monitor, target manage. Some are on bail.

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Speaker 2: We've locked up at least ten people responsible with some

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Speaker 2: of the vehicle thefts that are in custody, so we're

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Speaker 2: managing that network. And obviously in some of these cohorts

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Speaker 2: we see there might be a person well known to

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Speaker 2: police and there might be four followers, So we need

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Speaker 2: to intervene with the followers to correct their behavior and

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Speaker 2: get them back out of the thinking about crimes. Okay,

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Speaker 2: but I think the bigger picture rests with other government

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Speaker 2: departments as well, like education and that purpose in community

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Speaker 2: because if they're bored, they're looking for something to do,

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Speaker 2: they go steal a car and they come and say,

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Speaker 2: let's get in a pursuit with police. Really dangerous activity

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Speaker 2: and they brag about it on social media, which just

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Speaker 2: manifests into one upmanship, not just solely in the territory

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Speaker 2: but across Northern Australia.

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Speaker 1: Now what about like if you see honestly some of

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Speaker 1: the stuff that gets shared on TikTok and that that

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Speaker 1: even you know, our our own kids are saying that

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Speaker 1: these people are sharing. If they see that kind of stuff,

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Speaker 1: obviously reporting it because it's criminal behavior. But do we

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Speaker 1: need to get in contact with the Northern Territory Police

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Speaker 1: if we're seeing posts where people are going, oh, I'm

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Speaker 1: going on a bend or I'm going to be stealing

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Speaker 1: cars tonight.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, that's really good for our intelligence holdings and actions.

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Speaker 2: So we had that very specific across the weekend where

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Speaker 2: we know the origin of the message and then we

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Speaker 2: can target it and do the prevention and disruption. There's

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Speaker 2: also the e Safety Commissioner, So when there's harmful content

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Speaker 2: published that may involve children, you can report directly to

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Speaker 2: the Safety Commissioner. But if you report to us, we've

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Speaker 2: got some We've got some contacts as well, So the

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Speaker 2: e Safety Commissioner can compel certain social media sites to

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Speaker 2: take down material if it's halpful to the public.

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Speaker 1: Now, this discussion around knives and edged weapons, we know

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Speaker 1: that there has been talk about those wands that are

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Speaker 1: being used in places like Queensland. You raised this last week.

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Speaker 1: Where are these discussions at Okay?

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Speaker 2: So at the moment, the report's being finalized for me

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Speaker 2: to assess and review. So we two officers travel to

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Speaker 2: Brisbane and engage with the Queensland Police to understand how

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Speaker 2: they operate, the intent, the legislation, the policy setting, the equipment.

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Speaker 2: So they've come back and applying that to the Northern territory,

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Speaker 2: thinking about how we can apply that across the territory.

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Speaker 2: What we saw in Queensland it was a two year pilot.

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Speaker 2: I've spoken to the Deputy commission over there. It was

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Speaker 2: a success. They've just implemented into the legislation as a

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Speaker 2: permanent procedure really in party precincts and high harm activity areas,

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Speaker 2: which has seen a downturn in presentation of edge weapons,

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Speaker 2: So it's actually been a disruptor rather than an arrestor.

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Speaker 2: So the people know that they can't go into certain

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Speaker 2: areas because I know police will target them or wan

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Speaker 2: them to detect if they've got some sort of concealed weapon.

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Speaker 2: So it's actually making a safer environment, which is really

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Speaker 2: a really good outcome. So we want to apply that

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Speaker 2: thinking the territory.

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Speaker 1: So is it something that we need legislative change for

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Speaker 1: or is it something that you could do, like we

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Speaker 1: could do a bit of a trial for.

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Speaker 2: Well, at this stage there'll have to be some legistim Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and I've spoken to the minister. There's an appetite to

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Speaker 2: explore this further, so I'll just wait for my brief

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Speaker 2: then I'll engage with the Police Minister and we'll go

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Speaker 2: from there.

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Speaker 1: Well, I've got to say, Acting Commissioner, it sounds as

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Speaker 1: though you have certainly hit the ground running. What would

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Speaker 1: like what would you say your main priorities are going

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Speaker 1: to be over the next well period of time. I

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Speaker 1: guess that whole recruitment process is underway and we don't

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Speaker 1: know who the next Northern Territory Police Commissioner is, but

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Speaker 1: I know that you have put your hand up and

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Speaker 1: you have certainly hit the ground running. What are your

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Speaker 1: main priorities at this.

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Speaker 2: Point addressing crime issues across the Northern Territory. I'm looking

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Speaker 2: at obviously proactive measures to make sure territorians are and

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Speaker 2: feel safe, uniting a police force and uniting a community

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Speaker 2: with the police force to make a difference, continue to

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Speaker 2: look at new ideas to basically we need to change

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Speaker 2: the dynamic in the territory from what we're living and

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Speaker 2: feeling at the moment. Because people are concerned, so we

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Speaker 2: need to where leaders in this field we can make

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Speaker 2: a difference, and we will make a difference.

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Speaker 1: Well, I really appreciate your time this morning, and I've

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Speaker 1: got to say, you know, over recent weeks and months,

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Speaker 1: there has been a lot of us feeling pretty broken hearted.

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Speaker 1: I think you'd have to say about the way that

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Speaker 1: the territory is and some of the crime issues that

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Speaker 1: we've seen. But you have certainly given us a bit

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Speaker 1: of hope this morning, I think. So. I appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time and really appreciate you coming in and taking the

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Speaker 1: time to answer all those those questions. But before I

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Speaker 1: let you go, I can't not mention that it is

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Speaker 1: where orange Wednesday as well. I've got a bit of

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Speaker 1: orange on. You've got to have your uniform on, of course,

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Speaker 1: but you have got orange on the uniform of course.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's great. Look. It's a big shout out to

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Speaker 2: all our volunteers who you know National Volunteer Week as well,

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Speaker 2: but a big shout out to our Northern Territory Fire

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Speaker 2: and Emergency Services. We've got five hundred volunteers who work tirelessly,

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Speaker 2: give up their own time effort to make the community

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Speaker 2: say for and respond when people need help.

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Speaker 1: So well done, good on you, good stuff. Thanks so

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Speaker 1: much for your time this morning. The Acting Police Commissioner,

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Speaker 1: Michael Murphy