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Speaker 1: But joining me in the studio right now is the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory Police, well, the Darwin commander, Matt Holland b

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Matteah.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Kading, Good morning to your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now let's go through some of the incidents that occurred

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Speaker 1: over the course of the weekend. Firstly, I know that

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police are actually investigating the circumstances surrounding

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Speaker 1: the death of a man in Darwin on Saturday morning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, a man did die.

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Speaker 3: In the CBD, the circumstances are still being investigated, and

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Speaker 3: I can't really take that very much much further at

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Speaker 3: this stage.

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Speaker 1: Are you calling for witnesses or asking people for further

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Speaker 1: inview if there is.

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Speaker 3: Any look, if anyone knows anything about it, or particularly

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Speaker 3: if they did see the intern or of the aftermath,

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Speaker 3: we'd encourage them to contact police as soon as possible.

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Speaker 1: And of course we do know that that man's body

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Speaker 1: was discovered on Wood Street in Darwin City about six

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Speaker 1: point thirty in the morning. So if you have got

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Speaker 1: any information which could assist the police, one three one

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Speaker 1: triple four is the number to call through Matt. We

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Speaker 1: also know that over the last few months. I suppose

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Speaker 1: there has been a few more incidents, it seems of

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Speaker 1: some different situations at service stations overnight and over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: On Friday night, a young male was arrested late on

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Speaker 1: Friday night for attempting a robbery at the United service

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Speaker 1: station in lud Miller. What happened in this one, Look.

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Speaker 3: Katie, it's the same modus operandi all the time where

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Speaker 3: young kids enter a store, they either distract or confront

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Speaker 3: the service station attendant and try to steal low value

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Speaker 3: items slight cigarettes and food and drinks. But there was

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Speaker 3: one where three people, three youth have been arrested. That

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Speaker 3: happened in the United and the CBD, the one that

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Speaker 3: lad Miller is still under investigation.

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Speaker 2: And you know, the issue.

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Speaker 3: With the service stations is that we've put a lot

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Speaker 3: of time and effort into youth operation and also they

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Speaker 3: have first class, first grade CCTV, so it's not really

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Speaker 3: hard to solve a lot of these crimes either.

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Speaker 1: And so obviously the one with the young bloke in

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Speaker 1: luod Miller, it's still being investigated. But that United CBD

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Speaker 1: one was that over the weekend as well.

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Speaker 3: That was over the weekend, and yeah, three youth have

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Speaker 3: been arrested for that. I don't have the rages. I

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Speaker 3: think one was seventeen and two or thirteen, so wow, yeah, some.

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Speaker 1: Of them seem so young, Matt. You know, like in

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Speaker 1: some of these situations where the Northern Territory Police are

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Speaker 1: making these arrests in some cases, you know, eleven years

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Speaker 1: old and that kind of thing. It must be, you know,

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Speaker 1: quite frustrating and horrifying for you guys sometimes when you're

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Speaker 1: picking kids up that young.

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Speaker 2: Look at his heartbreaking.

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Speaker 3: I mean, our current youth operation is intent on engaging

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Speaker 3: with youth that are wandering the streets at ridiculous hours

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Speaker 3: of the night. And we find that a lot of

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Speaker 3: them are wandering the streets because they want to hang

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Speaker 3: out with their friends and they want to get up

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Speaker 3: to know good and you know, it's all about early interventions,

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Speaker 3: so we can engage with them, engage with the families

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Speaker 3: and see how well they're being looked after, see if

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Speaker 3: they go into school, making referrals to education and in

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Speaker 3: appropriate circumstances, making referrals to territory families as well. And

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Speaker 3: it's not just for the kids, it's for the families

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Speaker 3: as well. But you know, the children themselves are young children,

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Speaker 3: and people are supposed to raise their children well and

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Speaker 3: in a lot of these instances that they haven't been

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Speaker 3: raised very well at all.

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Speaker 1: Now, with those service station incidents, as I said right

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Speaker 1: at the start, there had been a lot of you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of vision that we've been seeing and quite

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Speaker 1: a bit coming out of some of those service stations

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Speaker 1: where they are clearly being targeted by these youths. Have

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Speaker 1: you found that it's quiet and down once you guys

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Speaker 1: have now put that pressure on.

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Speaker 3: Look, I'm not saying it's gone completely, but it has

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Speaker 3: quite and down for what it was six or eight

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Speaker 3: weeks ago when we started this operation.

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Speaker 2: I mean we started it early.

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Speaker 3: We started it actually before some of the footage came

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Speaker 3: to prominence.

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Speaker 2: But again it's it's.

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Speaker 3: It's about engaging with these kids that you know, some

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Speaker 3: of them just want to be you want attention. But

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Speaker 3: what we find with our problem use is almost in

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Speaker 3: all of all the cases, they've been exposed to domestic

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Speaker 3: viots from a very young age. And you know, bad

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Speaker 3: parenting leads to problem children.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean it's it's then it becomes such

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Speaker 1: a frustration for the whole community and you feel for

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Speaker 1: those people that are working obviously at those service stations

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Speaker 1: where you're just trying to get your job done and

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Speaker 1: you're having to deal with that type of thing over

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Speaker 1: the night.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and our youth operation is targeting those children who

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Speaker 3: are at risk of committing crimes. We're making referrals to education,

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Speaker 3: making referrals to territory families. There is help out there

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Speaker 3: for people, including for families. But as I say, most

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Speaker 3: of these children, in fact all of them have been

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Speaker 3: exposed to domestic violence from a very young age.

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Speaker 1: All right, Mata, I want to go through these crime

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Speaker 1: statistics and take a look at how things are tracking

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Speaker 1: around Darwin at the moment. Obviously, it refers to that

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Speaker 1: period of the first of the eighth twenty nineteen to

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Speaker 1: the thirty first of the seventh twenty twenty, comparing it

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Speaker 1: then to the first of the eighth twenty twenty right

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Speaker 1: up until the thirty first of the seventh twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: So quite you know, quite the gap in terms of

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Speaker 1: in terms of those comparisons, but things like things like

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Speaker 1: the housebreak ins have gone down quite significantly by the

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Speaker 1: look of it around Darwin in the latest crime stats.

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Speaker 1: Same as those motor vehicle thiefs. But unfortunately, then when

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Speaker 1: you go across to things like assault and domestic violence

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Speaker 1: related assault, well, our assaults have gone up thirty three percent,

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Speaker 1: domestic violence related assaults up fifty one percent. Does that

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Speaker 1: refer to that period of time through COVID wire locked down?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, it does.

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Speaker 3: You'll remember the early stages of COVID in March, April, May,

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Speaker 3: June last year we had very very low assault rates

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Speaker 3: and they are counted in the previous year's stats. And

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Speaker 3: then you know, job keeper, job seeker, everything opening up July, August, September,

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Speaker 3: October last year we had very high stats. So we're

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Speaker 3: comparing low stats to high stats. But that doesn't take

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Speaker 3: away from the fact that people are being assaulted in

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Speaker 3: a family environment and it's a disgraceful act.

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Speaker 2: It's a crime.

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Speaker 3: And if you know, just if you're a victim in

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Speaker 3: those circumstances, get help, and we're more than happy to

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Speaker 3: point you in the right direction.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because even when you then go across to Palmerston,

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Speaker 1: you know, domestic violence related assaults up sixty two percent,

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Speaker 1: and then the alcohol related assaults up fifty two percent,

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Speaker 1: it does seem like a really big jump in some cases.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Katie, it does. But I will say in terms

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Speaker 3: of Palmerston, it is coming down. Like three months ago

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Speaker 3: we were reporting a sixty percent increase and now we're

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Speaker 3: of total assaults and now we're reporting a thirty five

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Speaker 3: percent increase, sorry, a thirty percent increase, so it is

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Speaker 3: coming down.

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Speaker 2: There's really only three.

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Speaker 3: Months that affect the crime figures, so they don't change radically.

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Speaker 3: What the months that do affect is what happened last month,

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Speaker 3: what happened thirteen months ago, because that now is not

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Speaker 3: in the current year's stats, it's in the previous year's stats,

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Speaker 3: and what happened twenty five months ago, because that then

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Speaker 3: falls off the previous year's stats. So they don't change

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Speaker 3: radically from month to month.

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Speaker 1: If that makes sense well, and it sort of seems

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Speaker 1: to me as well, is that while the stats are

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Speaker 1: obviously important and it is a good thing for us

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Speaker 1: to take a look at each month, the police are

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Speaker 1: more dealing with what goes on each and every week,

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Speaker 1: and you're sort of having to be quite active and

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Speaker 1: change your tax I'm assuming based on what's happening out

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Speaker 1: on the street, you know, this week, rather than what

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Speaker 1: happened a year ago.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Katie.

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Speaker 3: Look, we look at recidivis, defenders, crime series, crime hotspots,

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Speaker 3: and prevention activity. They are our four key drivers and

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Speaker 3: what happened twenty five months ago doesn't really affect the

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Speaker 3: way that we guide and manage our business.

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Speaker 1: Now, what are some of the areas of concern or

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Speaker 1: areas that you're quite focused on at this point in time.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think.

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Speaker 3: Assaults and particularly domestic violence. Assaults is an area that

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Speaker 3: we need to get better at. Again, the figures will

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Speaker 3: come down because of what happened, you know, eight nine,

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Speaker 3: ten months ago. But having said that, we know that

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Speaker 3: domestic violence. All of our youth offenders are exposed to

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Speaker 3: domestic violence. So it's a cyclic thing where you know,

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Speaker 3: in terms of prevention, we need to target the early

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Speaker 3: intervention stages and quite frankly that's domestic violence.

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Speaker 1: And with those with some of the youth stuff. I

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Speaker 1: know that obviously there has been quite a bit of

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Speaker 1: work going in recent months and it sort of it

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Speaker 1: does seem to flare up at different times, and I

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Speaker 1: know that even you know, over recent weeks it has

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Speaker 1: been something that we've all sort of been talking about

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Speaker 1: again because there's been different businesses that have been you know,

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Speaker 1: been broken into. So so is it a case then

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Speaker 1: where you sort of have to put a bit more

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Speaker 1: focus onto that area.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Katie.

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Speaker 3: Look, you know the stats show that crime property crime

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Speaker 3: has come down, but again, you know, the stats are

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Speaker 3: all over the place at the moment. So but what

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Speaker 3: I will say is some of these crimes are very

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Speaker 3: very prominent. You know, they're featured in social media. People

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Speaker 3: there's CCTV footage of some of these incidents, and whether

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Speaker 3: there's more or.

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Speaker 2: Less of them is irrelevant.

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Speaker 3: People see what they see and that's that's how they

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Speaker 3: gauge their perceptions of crime.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and all they want is to really not

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Speaker 1: have to be worrying about it. And we all understand

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Speaker 1: though that you know that we're never going to be

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Speaker 1: able to totally cut all crime out, and we know

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Speaker 1: that the police work incredibly hard getting out there to

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Speaker 1: try and and apprehend those youths and even adults when

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Speaker 1: they're doing the wrong thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And look, there'll probably be some more media releases

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Speaker 3: later in the day right of some positive outcomes over

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Speaker 3: the weekend.

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Speaker 2: What I will say is that we act quickly.

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Speaker 3: To target crime and criminal offenders, apprehend the offenders and

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Speaker 3: again it's about intervening and interdicting before the offenders enter

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Speaker 3: into a crime spiral where crime can get out of control.

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Speaker 1: That was there some break ins or something over the weekend,

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Speaker 1: but you guys are able to apprehend them quickly or.

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Speaker 2: There were some incidents.

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Speaker 3: So there weren't a lot of breakings over the weekend,

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Speaker 3: but there were some incidents that we're following up and

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Speaker 3: we've got some really good leads on and there were

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Speaker 3: some youth warrest over the weekend, so we'll try and

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Speaker 3: get them out into the community later in the day.

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Speaker 1: Well, we'll keep a close eye on that. Matt hollandby

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Speaker 1: the Commander of Darwin and Road Policing. Good to catch

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Speaker 1: up with you this mon morning.

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Speaker 2: Which your pleasure. Thank you, Katie, thank you