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Speaker 1: Now joining me in the studio right now is Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Police Commander for Darwin and Road Policing, Matt hollandb

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, Good morning cheer listeners.

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Speaker 3: Now, well, can you to have a chat to you

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Speaker 3: this morning.

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Speaker 1: We had different people get in contact with us yesterday

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Speaker 1: about I think you call it general bad behavior from

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Speaker 1: some kids running a bit of a market around the city.

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Speaker 1: We spoke to businessman Jason Hannah. We also had other

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Speaker 1: callers ring through and say that they've seen an increase

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Speaker 1: in the number of youths not necessarily breaking the law,

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Speaker 1: but just behaving badly I think in our CBD.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, look, it has come to our attention over

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Speaker 2: the last few weeks. Obviously there was some vision on

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Speaker 2: television last night which was a couple of weeks old.

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Speaker 2: But there are groups of young kids, you know, eleven, twelve,

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Speaker 2: thirteen that are coming into the CBD and behaving naughty

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Speaker 2: is probably a good way of putting it. One of

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Speaker 2: the things that when it crosses over into a policing

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Speaker 2: issue is at some of the service stations and some

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Speaker 2: of the twenty four to seven corner stores, you know,

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Speaker 2: a child will buy a drink and a couple of

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Speaker 2: other children will steal a drink and a packet of

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Speaker 2: chips and run out the door. And so it's you know,

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Speaker 2: it's low level crime, but it's still a concern and

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to downplay it at all. It is

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Speaker 2: bad behavior.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and this is the thing.

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Speaker 1: I guess it sort of seems like it's really hard

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Speaker 1: at the moment within the community because it's not necessarily

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Speaker 1: behavior where the police, you know, need to.

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Speaker 3: Step in and arrest someone.

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Speaker 1: But to give you an example, our general manager here

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Speaker 1: at the radio station last week was it Uncle Sam's

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Speaker 1: and had a group of three teenagers you know, threatening

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Speaker 1: and being abusive inside. He asked them to, you know,

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Speaker 1: to sort of calm down. It ended up in a

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Speaker 1: situation where one of them was threatening to stab him.

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Speaker 1: So it's that kind of behavior where it's like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: nobody got stabbed, but it's it feels really dangerous, and

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Speaker 1: I guess you know, it makes people feel incredibly uncomfortable. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, don't shy away from that. And you know, when

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Speaker 2: crimes occur, we encourage people to report them and we'll

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Speaker 2: take action. And you know, places like Uncle Sam's and

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Speaker 2: the service stations have have first class CCTV, so it's

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Speaker 2: not hard for us to identify who the offenders are.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, look, it is bad behavior and it's sort

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Speaker 2: of a pack mentality. Like an individual child by themselves

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Speaker 2: is probably quite well behaved, but when when they get

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Speaker 2: into a group, they adopt the pac mentality and that's

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Speaker 2: when things can go pair shaped.

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Speaker 1: So what do we do, Like, if you know, if

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Speaker 1: you've got kids like on the street, who are you know,

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Speaker 1: picking up menus like we've seen in that vision, or

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Speaker 1: you know, if there's if there's women on their scooters

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Speaker 1: and then they're going over and taking those scooters from

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Speaker 1: them and throwing them on the ground.

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Speaker 3: Like, what do we do?

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Speaker 2: Well, when a crime occurs, it should be reported and

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Speaker 2: it will be investigated and if there's enough elevents, we

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Speaker 2: will take action, whether that's diversion or prosecution. But it's

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Speaker 2: the preventative thing that the preventative space we really need

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Speaker 2: to get into. And you know, why are those children

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Speaker 2: on the street. Well, that's a good question. You know,

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Speaker 2: parents have an obligation to look at LUG look after

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Speaker 2: their own children in terms of when we find them

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Speaker 2: on the streets not breaking the law. We'll do reports

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Speaker 2: to territory families, referrals to territory families, and you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a it's a whole of government approach as opposed

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Speaker 2: to a policing problem. Policing's are the last stop something

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Speaker 2: has gone wrong somewhere along the line. When when it

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Speaker 2: becomes solely a policing issue.

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Speaker 1: What about though, for those businesses who are just kind

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Speaker 1: of being subjected to really ordinary behavior.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's it's terrible and it shouldn't be tolerated.

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Speaker 2: And we encourage people to report crimes to the police.

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Speaker 2: And you will have seen that at some of the

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Speaker 2: key locations from time to time we put mobile CCTV

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Speaker 2: there to supplement the business's own CCTV help. And yeah,

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Speaker 2: we target the youth when they commit crimes.

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Speaker 1: So at the moment in our city, I know that

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Speaker 1: there had been a suggestion well to us here at

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Speaker 1: the station, that maybe there'd been a safe house moved

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Speaker 1: to Stuart Park and that that was why we were

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Speaker 1: seeing increased sort of anti social behavior from young people

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Speaker 1: in the city.

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Speaker 2: Has that happened, Not that I know of, I'm not

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Speaker 2: aware of any, but I can say we do know

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Speaker 2: most of these kids. It's not the same kids all

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Speaker 2: the time. It varies, but these are the same kids

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Speaker 2: that or some of them are the same kids that

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Speaker 2: we know from Casarina and they ride the buses into town.

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Speaker 2: There are one or two of them that actually live

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Speaker 2: in the city and so they go meet up and generally,

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Speaker 2: you know, from time to time exhibit bad behavior.

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Speaker 1: I guess the thing is it did sort of take

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Speaker 1: a step we'll well over bad behavior last week when

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Speaker 1: we caught up with alderman Gary Haslett, who'd been assaulted

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Speaker 1: at Casuarina. I know that this is now a situation

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Speaker 1: where it's a matter before the courts, but two thirteen.

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Speaker 3: Year olds were arrested.

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Speaker 1: I know there'll be a lot of people listening this

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Speaker 1: morning who are thinking, Okay, well, sometimes this might sort

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Speaker 1: of be naughty behavior from kids, but other times it's

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Speaker 1: going a step further, and what do we sort of

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Speaker 1: deem or how do we as a community, you know,

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Speaker 1: battle some of these issues when you know some of

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Speaker 1: these young people are getting away with naughty behavior and

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Speaker 1: then taking it a step together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, escalating, Yeah, and.

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Speaker 2: Look I won't I won't talk to that particular case,

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Speaker 2: but in general terms, Yeah, some of the some of

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Speaker 2: the naughty behavior does escalate to very serious behavior and when,

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Speaker 2: if and when that occurs, will take very with action.

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Speaker 2: You know, part of our a key role for us

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Speaker 2: is to identify crime series, identify hot spots, and identify

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Speaker 2: recidive as defenders and act quickly to stop or prevent

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Speaker 2: future crimes. So that's what we do.

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Speaker 1: So with these young people that are known to the

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Speaker 1: police around the city at the moment, who aren't behaving, well,

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Speaker 1: what is the like, what's the action plan?

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Speaker 2: Well, again, it's about engagement as a first step, engaging

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Speaker 2: with the youth and engaging with their families and involving

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Speaker 2: other stakeholders including territory, families and education. I mean, you

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Speaker 2: know most people say, why aren't these kids at footy

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Speaker 2: practice or why aren't they doing their homework? So you

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Speaker 2: know there there are pre empty actions that we can

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Speaker 2: take and that's that's the space we want to concentrate on.

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Speaker 3: Is it frustrating for the police at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, And look, you know some of these children

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Speaker 2: have really sad stories, not all of them, some of

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Speaker 2: them do. And you know, our job is to help

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Speaker 2: people as opposed to be mean to little children. So

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Speaker 2: we know, we prefer to help these people, and you know,

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Speaker 2: at the most extreme helping them is includes arresting them

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Speaker 2: and taking interdicting before they continue on a crime spreak.

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Speaker 1: I know last night on Channel nine I saw one

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Speaker 1: of the ladies who works at caledonas one of the

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Speaker 1: restaurants in the city. She was saying, please just help us.

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Speaker 1: Now I think too, you know, in general she was

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Speaker 1: saying that. I also know that some of those service

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Speaker 1: station operators have been saying the same thing. I mean, what, like,

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Speaker 1: how can we as a community try to sort this

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Speaker 1: issue out where we're you know, saying it's not good

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Speaker 1: enough and not accepting it, but making sure that it

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Speaker 1: actually changes in some way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and look, it's a whole of government approach that

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Speaker 2: needs to happen. As I say, policing is the backstop.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, my heart goes out to the victims, and

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Speaker 2: you know, we should support them as best we can.

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Speaker 1: To those victims that are feeling you know, pretty deflated,

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Speaker 1: I think, and wondering what they sort of do to

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Speaker 1: those business operators in the city that have maybe been

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Speaker 1: subjected to some of this poor behavior or had their

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Speaker 1: windows smashed, or to those service station operators who've also

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Speaker 1: been subjected to some pretty ordinary behavior. I mean, from

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Speaker 1: a policing perspective, what would you say to them?

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Speaker 2: Don't stop reporting it, keep reporting it because it does

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Speaker 2: give us an opportunity to interdict. And you know, when

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Speaker 2: naughty behavior escalates into criminal behavior, that's where we need

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Speaker 2: to take swift action, I ad to stop it from

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Speaker 2: continuing and be to help that individual who's who's not

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Speaker 2: doing the right thing.

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Speaker 1: Just to give you, I guess a bit of perspective

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Speaker 1: as to how our listeners are feeling this morning. We

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Speaker 1: have just received a message on the text line. It said, Hi, Ktie,

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Speaker 1: those kids are not being naughty. Some of them are

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Speaker 1: assaulting people, hurting people, stealing, wrecking people's property, and they're

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Speaker 1: all known to police. Why are they not in a

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Speaker 1: secure facility here?

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Speaker 2: And look, I'll respond to that by saying, some of

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Speaker 2: them are being naughty, but some of them are also

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Speaker 2: committing criminal behavior acts criminal acts, and when they do

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Speaker 2: commit criminal acts, we take action, whether it's youth diversion

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Speaker 2: or whether it's prosecution. You know, it's a little bit

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Speaker 2: more difficult to prosecute an eleven twelve year old than

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Speaker 2: it is an adult. But having said that, we still

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Speaker 2: go down that path to interdict and stop them from

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Speaker 2: offending into the future.

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Speaker 3: I know the police work incredibly hard. I know that.

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the first things that people say

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Speaker 1: to us when they contact us about these issues is

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Speaker 1: that police do it a great job and that they're

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Speaker 1: doing their best under difficult circumstances. But I know that

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Speaker 1: in some instances as well, we've had some criticism. I

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Speaker 1: guess that the police have maybe not attended some of

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Speaker 1: those locations as quickly as what the victims have hop

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Speaker 1: for or expected. Is that something that you're sort of

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Speaker 1: always looking into.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, when I mean, we can't be everywhere all

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Speaker 2: the time, but we do respond to course for assistance.

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Speaker 2: We have a grading policy, so you know, our highest

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Speaker 2: priority is a life saving response where we'll go lights

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Speaker 2: and sirens and sometimes you know, those things take precedence

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Speaker 2: over things that can possibly wait, and you know, if

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Speaker 2: you're a victim, that doesn't help you very much. But

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Speaker 2: we need to respond to the life saving incidents first,

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Speaker 2: if that makes sense.

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Speaker 3: Have we got enough police on the bay?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's we do the best we can with what

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Speaker 2: we've got. You know, it's obviously it's an interesting time

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Speaker 2: with COVID and our resourcing commitments to COVID, but you know,

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Speaker 2: we put police out on the streets and we respond

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Speaker 2: as quickly as we can to all respond the reports

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Speaker 2: that require a police response.

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Speaker 1: We are going to have to leave it there. Commander

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Speaker 1: Matt Hollanby, our commander for Darwin Region and Rhoades Policing.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much for your time today.

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Speaker 2: Always a pleasure.

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Speaker 3: Codie, Thank you