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Speaker 1: Now. There has been a lot happening in Alice Springs

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Speaker 1: of late and it's reached tipping point according to Tourism

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Speaker 1: Central Australia, which says that tourists are being targeted and

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Speaker 1: locals afraid to sleep at night. We also know that

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Speaker 1: an elderly man was seriously assaulted earlier in the week

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Speaker 1: and as I understand that the visitor Information center was

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Speaker 1: damaged as well throughout a break in. Now joining me

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Speaker 1: for a bit of an update from the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Police perspective is the Assistant Assistant Commissioner of Regional and

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Speaker 1: Remote Policing based in Alice Springs, Martin Dole. Good morning

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Speaker 1: to you, Martin.

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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. Firstly, can

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Speaker 1: I ask are there any developments after the assault of

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Speaker 1: the sixty seven year old man that we spoke about

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Speaker 1: earlier in the week.

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Speaker 2: So we haven't made any arrests in relation to that, Katie,

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Speaker 2: that gentleman still in hospital and he's still listed in

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Speaker 2: a serious but stable condition and our detectives are still

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Speaker 2: working around the clock to try and identify exactly what

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Speaker 2: happened in relation to that assault.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully able to apprehend the person who's done it, and

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Speaker 1: so he's still in hospital at this point in time

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Speaker 1: and stable. Did you say that's correct?

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Speaker 2: Yes, all right.

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Speaker 1: Now, I understand. I mean, obviously there's been quite a

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Speaker 1: bit happening throughout the last couple of weeks, so I

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Speaker 1: guess that there is always a lot of discussion when

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Speaker 1: it comes to crime in Central Australia, but certainly over

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Speaker 1: the last few weeks it seems to have reached fever

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Speaker 1: pitch for some We know that Tourism Central Australia had

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Speaker 1: come out and said that locals and tourists were indeed

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Speaker 1: being targeted. Are you aware or have you heard that

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Speaker 1: tourists are being targeted? Is it something that you are

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Speaker 1: concerned about?

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Speaker 2: So, firstly, I suppose Katie. What I'll say is that

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Speaker 2: there is always a lot going on in Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: I don't think what I've seen is it's fever pitch

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Speaker 2: in the last few weeks, but we have continued high

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Speaker 2: rates of crime. So I'm aware of one incident where

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Speaker 2: a tourist was assaulted the Tourist Information Center, but police

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Speaker 2: are still following that up. But that's a random attack

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Speaker 2: and that wasn't a specific targeting of that person.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it must concern you though that there are

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Speaker 1: people saying in Central Australia that you know that they're

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Speaker 1: afraid when they go to sleep at night of what's

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Speaker 1: going to happen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it absolutely concerns me, Katie, it really does. And

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Speaker 2: the fact is that unlafflantry of your premises and stealing

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Speaker 2: of your belong belongings is one of the most traumatic

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Speaker 2: things that can happen to you. But what I do

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Speaker 2: want to assure the public of and the public of

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Speaker 2: the Norn Territory in Nalla Springs is the great work

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Speaker 2: that our guys are doing in following up, investigating and

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Speaker 2: apprehending these people that are committing these crimes. And have

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Speaker 2: got a few stats for you if you'd like, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: definitely some of the some of the arrests that our

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Speaker 2: Strikeforce Viper team have made since January this year. Now,

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Speaker 2: Strikeforce Viper was set up to target property crime, criminal

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Speaker 2: damage type offenses. Now since January this year, they've apprehended

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Speaker 2: eight hundred and twenty six people and those stats include

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Speaker 2: three hundred and eighty six areas, one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: two summons, fifty eight youth diversions, and one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty four apprehensions for breach of bail. And that's purely

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Speaker 2: in relation to property offending. So it does show the

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Speaker 2: really good work that our guys are doing following up

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Speaker 2: these offenses and holding people accountable.

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Speaker 1: So just talk me through those stats again. Eight hundred

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Speaker 1: and twenty six people arrested by Strikeforce viper Throe.

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Speaker 2: Sorry, I'll just I'll break it. It's eight hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty six apprehensions. Apprehensions broken down into three eighty six arrests,

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Speaker 2: one fifty two summons, is fifty eight youth diversions, yep.

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Speaker 1: So I mean it's pretty clear that the police are

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Speaker 1: doing everything that they can to try to you know,

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Speaker 1: to get or to stop crime. Like once it's at

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Speaker 1: the pointy end, you know, you're doing what you can

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Speaker 1: once it's at that point end, but it does seem

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Speaker 1: as though, you know, something's failing us before that point

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Speaker 1: if the police are reaching the point where you know,

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Speaker 1: there's eight hundred and twenty six apprehensions since January this year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, we've also recently increased our presence throughout the

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Speaker 3: CBD and we've got a high visibility, pleasing presence just

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Speaker 3: to give that public reassurance and public confidence and try

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Speaker 3: and intercept some of this any.

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Speaker 2: Social and criminal behavior that's occurring throughout our CBD with

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Speaker 2: the likes of smash windows and people committing any social

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Speaker 2: behavior behavior drinking in public. So we have got an

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Speaker 2: increased presence out there and people will see us around

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Speaker 2: engaging with businesses in the weeks ahead.

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Speaker 1: And so Martin, is that something that's sort of vamped

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Speaker 1: up over the last week or so.

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Speaker 2: We certainly have increased our presence. Yes, over the last

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Speaker 2: few weeks, we have, Katie, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: Now, can I ask you as well. We caught up

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Speaker 1: with the Police Association president Paul mchu earlier in the week. Now,

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Speaker 1: I very much know you know that I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to engage you in a political discussion. I know that

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Speaker 1: that's not appropriate given your role, but I do want

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Speaker 1: to ask head rays that there are some concerns when

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Speaker 1: it comes to that point of intervention from the palis

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Speaker 1: on bottleshel he had given us the figure of about

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Speaker 1: two hundred and seventeen grog refusals per day. I mean

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Speaker 1: that is a lot that the police are then dealing

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Speaker 1: with the pali's dealing with on those bottle shops, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: That is totally Katie. So look, I've been keeping an

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Speaker 2: eye on the stats, and we've got stats for the

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Speaker 2: ten weeks since the cessation of Stronger Future. There's no

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Speaker 2: doubt that in the weeks immediately following the cessation we

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Speaker 2: had some spikes of refusals and that was reaching into

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Speaker 2: the two hundreds. In those first couple of weeks, those

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Speaker 2: have been trending down and last week the numbers were

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Speaker 2: well below two hundred refusals a day.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so they are going down a little bit in

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Speaker 1: the recent days by the sounds of us so well

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Speaker 1: in the recent weeks.

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Speaker 2: So the first five weeks we saw them reach a peak,

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Speaker 2: and in the five weeks subsequent to that we've seen

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Speaker 2: them trending downwards.

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Speaker 1: Now, Paul mckew had also said that right now there

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Speaker 1: are only fifteen of those palis that are on the

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Speaker 1: bottle shops operational in Alice Springs. There is funding for

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Speaker 1: forty one or forty two. As I understand it is

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Speaker 1: that the case that there is only fifteen right now.

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Speaker 2: No, that's not the case. Katie, So we do have

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Speaker 2: funding for forty one positions, and I can understand there's

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Speaker 2: a bit of confusion around the numbers because they're very similar.

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Speaker 2: We're currently carrying fourteen or fifteen vacancies. So out of

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Speaker 2: the forty one established positions, we've got twenty seven of

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Speaker 2: those filled and twenty two of them are available for

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Speaker 2: PALI duties, five of them unavailable for various other reasons.

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Speaker 1: Does that mean, though, that we're in a situation where

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Speaker 1: sometimes you know constables who you would have doing other

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Speaker 1: roles around the town having to step in and do

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Speaker 1: that job on the bottle shops.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly what it means, Katie. But we're committed at

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Speaker 2: the moment to completing continuing full lockdown. We feel those

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Speaker 2: vacancies through a variation of overtime shifts and allocating people

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Speaker 2: to roster shifts because we're currently carrying an excess number

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Speaker 2: of constables and other springs above our establishment. So we're

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Speaker 2: able to do that and fill that without too much

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Speaker 2: impact on the front line.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it's not from your perspective, it's not having

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Speaker 1: a big impact when it comes to you know, those

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Speaker 1: more highly visible patrols and things like that around the Straits.

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Speaker 2: Not in the long term, Katie, No, okay, but right now, Look,

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Speaker 2: right now we're able to fill those because we've currently

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Speaker 2: got the establishment above. Yep, we're consistently recruiting to the

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Speaker 2: pali officers. It's very difficult to keep pally officers because

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Speaker 2: what we see is a trend from paleo officers jumping

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Speaker 2: over to constable streams, so they get a taste of

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Speaker 2: the police force, a lot of them want to join

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Speaker 2: the police force proper, and that's when we end up

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Speaker 2: losing palely officers across the constable. So we're consistently recruiting

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Speaker 2: back to the palelyo officers to keep ourselves up to

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Speaker 2: the up to the limits that we're funded to deliver.

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Speaker 1: Martin, from your perspective, house things going in Central Australia

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Speaker 1: and in Alice Springs at the moment when it comes

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Speaker 1: to some of those concerns around youth crime, because I

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Speaker 1: know you and I had spoken quite a little while

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Speaker 1: back when it came to some of those issues in

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Speaker 1: youth crime and one of the other Assistant commissioners, and

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Speaker 1: it had certainly been raised that you know, at different

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Speaker 1: times there was a lot of like really young kids

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Speaker 1: on the streets in Alice Springs at nighttime. How are

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Speaker 1: things going from your perspective in that space.

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Speaker 2: Well, Katie, we've currently been working with the other agencies,

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Speaker 2: and I know when we spoke some time ago with

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Speaker 2: Commander Laidna, who was the acting Assistant Commissioner at the time,

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Speaker 2: we were crying out to say, look, we need to

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Speaker 2: work more collaboratively. I'm pleased to say that's happening. That

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Speaker 2: is taking place, and there's a Social Order Response team

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Speaker 2: been set up with all of the other agencies that

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Speaker 2: we are talking about interested in working together with us

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Speaker 2: to address some of these problems. So since January, we've

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Speaker 2: referred one hundred and four youth to Youth Diversion, sixty

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Speaker 2: seven of those of the local al Springs youth and

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Speaker 2: the remaining thirty seven are from the various Southern Region communities.

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Speaker 3: So we are.

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Speaker 2: Referring to youth diversion and the other agencies are able

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Speaker 2: to take that up and put these children on programs.

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Speaker 1: Assistant Commissioner, to anybody listening this morning, we are going

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Speaker 1: to have to wrap up. But to anybody listening this

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Speaker 1: morning who is in Allie Springs who is really concerned

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Speaker 1: about the rates of crime and the issues that they

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Speaker 1: are seeing. And I know that there is always a

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Speaker 1: lot of support for the territory police, but what would

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Speaker 1: you say to those people that are listening and are

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Speaker 1: concerned about what they're seeing around the town.

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Speaker 2: Look, I just encouraged the community to have faith in

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Speaker 2: the police force. We are out there, we are making

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Speaker 2: a difference in locking these people up. One thing I'd

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Speaker 2: just like to say to the communicating is target hardening

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Speaker 2: is still something that can assist us. We encourage people

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Speaker 2: to still not leave windows and doors unlocked, make sure

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Speaker 2: that your keys are in a safe place, because those

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Speaker 2: simple things can assist us so much with simple break

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Speaker 2: ins that just don't need to happen when you locked

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Speaker 2: your premises up.

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Speaker 1: All right, Assistant Commissioner Martin Dole, the Assistant Commissioner for

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Speaker 1: Regional and Remote Policing based in Alice Springs. I appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time this morning. Thank you for speaking with us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie,