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Speaker 1: What we know is that last week there was a

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Speaker 1: shocking incident which has seen a thirty eight year old

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Speaker 1: man arrested and charged after allegedly driving at police in

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs. Now officers responded to reports of disturbances on

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Speaker 1: Todd Street, when police alleged the man drove a ute

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Speaker 1: at speed towards an officer on the road and a

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Speaker 1: marked police vehicle that was still occupied. Now, that officer

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Speaker 1: discharged three shots at the oncoming vehicle, striking it.

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Speaker 2: No one was hit.

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Speaker 1: The youth then rammed the police car, leaving one officer

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Speaker 1: with minor injuries. Now that man's being charged with multiple offenses,

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Speaker 1: including recklessly endangering life, and remains under investigation. Joining me

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Speaker 1: in the studio, pleased to say, is the president of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police Association, Nathan Finn. Good morning, Finny,

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Kenny, Good morning to your listeners. Now, mate,

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Speaker 1: this was an absolute shocker last week. It was quite

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Speaker 1: unbelievable when you watch that CCTV vision and see exactly

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Speaker 1: what's gone on.

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Speaker 2: Extremely serious and dangerous situation. Cardio members were placed in.

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Speaker 2: I had the pleasure of speaking to them just not

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Speaker 2: long after the incident. Occurred and it was very raw

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Speaker 2: to him then what had occurred, and having gone through

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Speaker 2: the investigation supported them in Ella Springs last week and

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Speaker 2: to feel the pain that they're feeling now because of

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Speaker 2: the decision they were forced to make. It's really hard

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Speaker 2: to deal with and they at times they're struggling with

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Speaker 2: the decisions they've had to make. But what the CCTV footage,

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Speaker 2: and I applaud that the police force for coming out

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Speaker 2: and supporting our members in the first instance and providing

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Speaker 2: the CCTV footage to the public so they can see

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Speaker 2: the dangerous situations our police officers are being placed in.

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Speaker 2: But what you don't see on the CCTV footage is

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Speaker 2: the vehicle driving down the footpath to start with, towards

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Speaker 2: the officer to start with, and try to run over

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Speaker 2: another group of people. So there's a lot of stuff

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Speaker 2: that goes on around that little snippet of video you've

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Speaker 2: seen where it collides with the police vehicle and the

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Speaker 2: member that just made a decision to hop back in

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Speaker 2: the police car right at that right point in time.

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Speaker 2: If you hadn't hop back in that you don't know

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Speaker 2: what could have been cardy in And that's the decision

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Speaker 2: we're dealing with now and speaking to him and offering

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Speaker 2: welfare and the supporting him through that process is what if?

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Speaker 2: The what ifs of what could have.

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Speaker 1: Happened, Finny, I don't expect you to go through private

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Speaker 1: conversations that you've had with those police officers, but how

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Speaker 1: are they tracking those two officers that were very closely.

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Speaker 2: Targeted, quite rightfully feared for their lives and quite rightfully

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Speaker 2: they've been placed in a position now it's alleged that

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Speaker 2: the offender that the same vehicles involved in a similar

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Speaker 2: incident back in Alice Spring is not too far away.

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Speaker 2: He's on parole for that offense.

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Speaker 1: As well, so he's on parole.

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's correct, Katie, And that's that's the frustrating point

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Speaker 2: that our members have. If these dangerous people commit dangerous

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Speaker 2: acts continually and still being released, what are we doing

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Speaker 2: to support the members of the public and also support

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Speaker 2: our members of the police force in doing their role.

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Speaker 1: So on that, you know, could there be policy or

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Speaker 1: legislative changes. What do you think could be done here

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Speaker 1: to you know, to really try to help support police

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Speaker 1: doing their frontline job.

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Speaker 2: How do you support someone that makes a decision to

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Speaker 2: consciously target a police vehicle, an attempt to run them over,

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Speaker 2: attempt to murder, and essentially is what this person has

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Speaker 2: done to make you cannot be everywhere and make those decisions.

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Speaker 2: People are going to choose their behavior that they act.

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Speaker 2: This person has chosen his behavior to target police. And

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Speaker 2: he's lucky to be a live, Cadie, And that's all

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Speaker 2: I can say is he's lucky to be alive.

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Speaker 1: You know, just how close was it really? Do you think?

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Speaker 1: For those officers?

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Speaker 2: Very very And by the end of it, the person

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Speaker 2: that fired the shots was hit by debris from the

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Speaker 2: vehicle crash. He was and within one meter of the

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Speaker 2: collision where it occurred, and this estimated between seventy to

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Speaker 2: eighty kilometers an hour where the vehicles collided with the

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Speaker 2: police vehicle. Again, the police vehicle was in gear. If

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Speaker 2: it hadn't been in gear, the impact would have been

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Speaker 2: much greater to the person in the vehicle as well.

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Speaker 2: Instead of being just soare you don't know what danger

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Speaker 2: that person could didn't even have time to put his

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Speaker 2: seat byt on, Cadie, You're just going to move the

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Speaker 2: car as we do, we park assess the situation. Then

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Speaker 2: obviously make assessments of what's going on, and then to

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Speaker 2: not know even what was going on at that point

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Speaker 2: in time. But his partner was obviously well aware of

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Speaker 2: what was going on in the vehicle jump over a

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Speaker 2: basically a garden bed towards a group of people on

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Speaker 2: the footpath, driving towards them at speed, and he had

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Speaker 2: no other option to protect himself and he's protecting his partner.

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Speaker 1: In the members of community, it feels like over the

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Speaker 1: last few weeks we've seen sort of an escalation in

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Speaker 1: some of the violence on the streets of Alice Springs,

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Speaker 1: but also towards frontline work. Not only are police, but

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Speaker 1: I've spoken to Saint John's on numerous occasions and they've

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Speaker 1: had really quite sort of dangerous situations that their paramedics

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Speaker 1: have been through as well.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of tensions in the community Cardio, so

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Speaker 2: it's a lot of it's family orientated for Aboriginal people

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Speaker 2: across the Northern Territory in relation to further deaths or

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Speaker 2: further injuries in family members. There's a lot of stuff

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Speaker 2: that going in Alice Springs. Again, up here, we see

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Speaker 2: flooded in communities, we see isolated communities, We see behavior

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Speaker 2: that's not normal this time of the year, and we

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Speaker 2: get people that's stuck inside it into our major centers

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Speaker 2: and causing obviously a fluctuation in housing numbers, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Pressures on the housing numbers exit at this point in

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Speaker 2: time of year. But again, nothing condone this sort of

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Speaker 2: behavior and this side of behavior towards their front line

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Speaker 2: work is not only just beliee, but yeah, our paramedics,

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Speaker 2: our hospital staff, we've all got such an important job

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Speaker 2: to keep the community safe and work together to keep

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Speaker 2: the community safe. That's fundamental and no way known should

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Speaker 2: they be target any point in time. They are here

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Speaker 2: to help, and they are here to help, and they're

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Speaker 2: the people they call upon when they do need help.

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Speaker 2: So look, what do.

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Speaker 1: We do from this point Because we've tried campaigns, right

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Speaker 1: like we've tried, you know, hands off our paramedics. I

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Speaker 1: think was the one that was that was running for

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Speaker 1: a while. It may still be running. You know, you

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Speaker 1: and I speak all the time about this. We talk

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Speaker 1: about the fact that you know, the police are out

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Speaker 1: there trying to do their jobs. They shouldn't have to

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Speaker 1: put up with this kind of garbage behavior. You know,

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Speaker 1: you've got everybody saying it's not okay, but it continues

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Speaker 1: to happen.

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Speaker 2: It continues as much as you can legislate as much

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Speaker 2: as you wan. Again, how do you change the people's

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Speaker 2: behavior that have no value for life, engage in conduct

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Speaker 2: that has no value for anyone else's life. You cannot

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Speaker 2: legislate for that, Katie, And that's un fortunate. It's unfortunate situation.

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Speaker 2: We see these kinds of behavior continuing, whether that's alcohol

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Speaker 2: fuel drug fueled, whatever it is. They have don't have

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Speaker 2: perception that they don't think anyone else's life matters, so

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Speaker 2: they make these decisions based on a whim or whatever

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Speaker 2: it is. Again, they help stupid decisions get stupid prizes.

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Speaker 2: As far as I'm consider so.

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Speaker 1: Fit, is it anything we can do differently, Like, is

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Speaker 1: there any kind of you know, legislative movements, anything you

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Speaker 1: feel could be changed, or you know, should we just

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Speaker 1: not be letting people out on bail when they're involved

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Speaker 1: in kind of violent conduct previous.

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Speaker 2: Again, that's a consideration for sentencing submissions, Sensing Act reform.

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Speaker 2: We'll be speaking to the government, speaking to the Commissier

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Speaker 2: of Police and the police are in respect to that

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Speaker 2: to see what our members can actually what we can

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Speaker 2: achieve and change in this space. But I don't think

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Speaker 2: it's a legisli thing that it needs to change came.

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Speaker 2: It's more of a behavior thing, and unfortunately we see

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Speaker 2: these behaviors, and we're seeing more and more of these

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Speaker 2: behaviors going on in the community and it's frustrating for

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Speaker 2: our members. But rest assured, I can guarantee that I

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Speaker 2: will back our members one hunderd and tenbus for them

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Speaker 2: to do what their legislative obligation is to do and

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Speaker 2: protect the community, protect themselves and protect others, and to

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Speaker 2: make sure they're doing that in the best possible way

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Speaker 2: they can, with the support of the Police Association behind them.

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Speaker 1: Well, Nathan Finn, President of the Northern Territory Police Association,

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Speaker 1: we will leave it there. I appreciate your time as always,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us in the STUDI.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Katie, and thank you to your listeners, but

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Speaker 2: also thank you to the members of the police force

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Speaker 2: that continually go above and beyond to protect our community

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Speaker 2: and do the hard work that the government's making the legislation,

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Speaker 2: but we're the ones actually enforcing it and making that

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Speaker 2: huge difference in that space, and they can't thank them enough.

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Speaker 1: Finny, thank you so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you now,