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Speaker 1: Now we know as part of the King's Birthday celebrations

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Speaker 1: yesterday a number of incredible Territorians were recognized in the

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Speaker 1: King's Birthday Honors list, and the recipient of this year's

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Speaker 1: Australian Police Medal joins me on the line right now. Now,

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Speaker 1: plenty of you may recognize his voice. His name is

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Speaker 1: Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Bland. Good morning to you Blandee, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning Katie, how are you. Good morning to you listeners.

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Speaker 1: Mate, The biggest congratulations to you on receiving the Australian

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Speaker 1: Police Medal. An incredible honor and incredibly well deserved.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Katie. Yes, I was very, very I

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Speaker 2: mentally proud to have received that, not not only the nomination,

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Speaker 2: but now I have been told I've received it, mentally proud.

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Speaker 1: Mate. I know you're an incredibly humbled person, so I

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Speaker 1: have no doubt that you were pretty humbled by by

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Speaker 1: fine when you found out that you were receiving such

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Speaker 1: a huge honor.

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Speaker 2: Well, yes, someone was, Katie. Indeed, as you know, there's

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Speaker 2: lots of hard working police officers up here in the territory.

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Speaker 2: For me to be to be nominated to receive a yeah,

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Speaker 2: incredibly humble.

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Speaker 1: Vital now blendy. Plenty of people will recognize your voice

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Speaker 1: because we've spoken to you on numerous occasions. Do you

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Speaker 1: head up Strike Force Strident? You do an incredible job

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Speaker 1: and you're out there really trying to, you know, to

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Speaker 1: help Territorians when they've been impacted by all sorts of crime.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Okay, it's really down to my team. We

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Speaker 2: have a fantastic thing. They're highly motivated, work extremely hard,

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Speaker 2: and we are great satisfaction out of being able to

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Speaker 2: help members of the community. As you know, if your

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Speaker 2: house gets broken into, your vehicle stolen, or you're a

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Speaker 2: victim of a serious assault arm we get great satisfaction

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Speaker 2: now to arrest these people, will recover the property and

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Speaker 2: sort of time put the community's community these knowing that

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Speaker 2: we're out there and we're doing absolutely the thing we

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Speaker 2: can to try and put a dent in things.

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Speaker 1: Now, Senior Sergeant Bland, you have been a member of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Police Force since two thousand and two.

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Speaker 1: It's an incredibly long period of time. What are some

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Speaker 1: of your more memorable moments.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's Hete Scatie. I've had such a fantastic twenty

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Speaker 2: one years. I just love coming to work. Even up

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Speaker 2: to twenty one years, believe or not, I'm getting up

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Speaker 2: and coming to work every day. I just thoroughly enjoy it.

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Speaker 2: But probably one that really sticks out is about nine

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Speaker 2: years ago, there was a mother with her two children

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Speaker 2: in the car out in the Northern suburbs and she

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Speaker 2: hopped out of the car to close the gates to

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Speaker 2: the driveway and male walking past is jumped in the car.

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Speaker 2: Her i think, with six year old son, managed to

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Speaker 2: scramble out before the car was stolen, but her her

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Speaker 2: young baby was still within the vehicle, which is just

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Speaker 2: horrifying for her parent. But thankfully we're notified straight away

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Speaker 2: and we'll manage to track that vehicle down, arrest the offender,

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Speaker 2: and the baby ended up being located safe and well.

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Speaker 2: But that's one that really sticks in my mind. Being

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Speaker 2: a parent myself, I just could not think horrifying that

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Speaker 2: must be for someone. So that really does stick in

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Speaker 2: my mind because it was just a quick result and

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Speaker 2: it's horrifying that it was an husband. At least we

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Speaker 2: managed to get the child and the offender in custody

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Speaker 2: a very very quick time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's like that would just be every parent's

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Speaker 1: was nightmare, wouldn't it.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I could. I cruly couldn't think of anything

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Speaker 2: worth some just not knowing where your baby is for

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Speaker 2: that period of time. And that's why I was so

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Speaker 2: relieved that we'll manage to track there, the offender and

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Speaker 2: the vehicle down in such very very quick time to

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Speaker 2: at least get the baby back to the mum and

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Speaker 2: put her mind at he's even though obviously traumatized by

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Speaker 2: it for quite some time. I would believe it would

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Speaker 2: have been a lot, you know, if we couldn't if

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Speaker 2: it delayed. Yeah, played reaction and so oh's one that

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Speaker 2: really does stick in my mind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and mate, I mean the things that you have

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Speaker 1: obviously done over that period of time as well. I

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Speaker 1: mean twenty one years, it's an incredible period of time

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Speaker 1: to be in the police force. How many years have

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Speaker 1: you been the officer in charge of Strike Force Trident.

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Speaker 2: I've only been the officer in charge for coming up

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Speaker 2: to two, probably two before that as the acting officer

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Speaker 2: in charge while se maintenant Jordan Army. He went down

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Speaker 2: and helps out viper down in Old Springs, so I

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Speaker 2: covered for him before he left and Yeah, I've been

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Speaker 2: in nearly two years as the officer in charge, but

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Speaker 2: been within tried since its inception back in twenty twelve,

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Speaker 2: which we were meant to be just a month long

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Speaker 2: operation with a group of people picked to try and

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Speaker 2: get on top of property crime for a month and

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Speaker 2: that we're old to two months and had great success

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Speaker 2: and it ended up just continuing into a permanent spot

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Speaker 2: and we're still going now, which is great, and it is.

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Speaker 1: Really important work that Strikeforce Trident does. I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: a vital task force. It focuses on property related crime

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Speaker 1: and that violent property related offending in the Greater Darwin region.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you guys are at the forefront really trying

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Speaker 1: to battle you know a lot of the issues that

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Speaker 1: that Territorians do have concerns with. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Well, you know, as you there's obviously no our

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Speaker 2: lawful entries usually result in solar mode of ecles and

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Speaker 2: from there we end up seeing ram raids or robberies

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Speaker 2: or ram raids into model shops, fake stores, things like that,

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Speaker 2: so they all sort of fow on into each other.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, we always kept very very busy, but we

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Speaker 2: like to I think we're quite successful in what we do.

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Speaker 2: We seem to get very very good results to the

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Speaker 2: hard work of the team. So every day we just

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Speaker 2: come in and we do everything we possibly can to

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Speaker 2: help the community.

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Speaker 1: Well, such a congratulations to you on receiving this year's

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Speaker 1: Australian Police Medal as part of the King's Birthday honors.

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Speaker 1: Your family must be incredibly proud.

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Speaker 2: Yes, okay, yeah, they are proud, and you know you

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Speaker 2: can't do it without them. They're the backbone my wife

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Speaker 2: and my children. They have to put up with the

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Speaker 2: long hours and the call outs and they have to

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Speaker 2: be some some family things of course, but that comes

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Speaker 2: with the job. And log I said, I love my

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Speaker 2: job and the extremely supportive and I couldn't do it

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Speaker 2: without them.

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Speaker 1: And mate, that's such an important point to make because

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Speaker 1: you know, the police are there. We call on you

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Speaker 1: guys for absolutely everything a day and night, and and

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Speaker 1: you know you are pulled away from your families, all

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Speaker 1: of you at different times, and you're going into situations

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Speaker 1: that can be very dangerous as well. So I think

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Speaker 1: it is such an important point to make, and not

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Speaker 1: only for you, but all the wonderful Northern Territory place.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and definitely all their partners. Like we said, that's

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Speaker 2: they're the backbone, your partners in this job. You need

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Speaker 2: their support, their love and support to get through some

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Speaker 2: of the things we go through. But also, like we said,

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Speaker 2: the amount of ours we sometimes spend at work, they

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Speaker 2: have to be very understanding. Yeah, in which mine are.

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Speaker 2: I'm extremely lucky.

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Speaker 1: Personal well, Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Bland congratulations on being

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Speaker 1: this year's recipient of the Australian Police Medal. Incredibly well

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Speaker 1: deserved and a big congratulations from us here at the

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Speaker 1: radio station. And on a personal level, I've, you know

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Speaker 1: years ago, worked with you when I was in the

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Speaker 1: media unit. I know you're a bloody hard worker and

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Speaker 1: very much deserve that honor.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Katie, and I've just say thank

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Speaker 2: you too for all your ongoing support. You're tremendous. The

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Speaker 2: support you give not only stripe us time the modern

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Speaker 2: tartic to police. It's very much appreciated.

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Speaker 1: Thanks mate. Thanks Blandy, We'll talk to you again soon

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Speaker 1: and keep up the good work.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, Thank you