NT Government reassures community that more is being done to tackle crime
The NT Government and Police are trying to reassure the community they're devoting more resources to tackling alcohol fuelled crime and antisocial behaviour with a new police unit. But no new officers will be recruited until next year, and communities are worried the current strategy of moving police from place to place "isn't sufficient” to prevent the usual Christmas crime spike.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 10 officers moved from other positions in the NT Police are the first members of a new
00:08 unit, the Territory Safety Division, tasked with tackling alcohol-fuelled and anti-social
00:13 crime in Durban.
00:15 This team is an important part of making sure we stop crime before it happens.
00:20 The unit will travel to different communities when problems flare, and the government has
00:24 committed to paying for 50 more officers for it sometime next year.
00:29 It's about $290,000 per police officer and we're funding an addition of 50.
00:34 But the Police Force's plea for 200 extra officers is on hold until a review reports.
00:40 I will support the police review and whatever recommendations that come from this.
00:44 The police are responding to crime concerns by moving existing resources around, including
00:51 sending 50 officers to Alice Springs for Christmas.
00:54 We know that there was at least nine officers from the traffic unit going down to Alice
00:58 Springs to cover for that.
00:59 Other communities also feel vulnerable.
01:02 Crime and the police are overworked, I think.
01:05 Tennant Creek leaders are dismayed its emerged police are investigating allegations a young
01:10 child was sexually assaulted at the weekend.
01:14 It's never-ending, what's happening in Tennant Creek.
01:17 The place is sort of falling apart.
01:19 Police say they'll do more in future to inform communities about serious allegations and
01:24 crime.
01:25 The public deserves to know what's going on in their community.
01:27 There's no political interference.
01:29 That's a gap we're working on.
01:30 The government isn't conceding crime could lose at the election.
01:34 Let's be clear, the COP don't have any answers.
01:36 It's up to Territorians to decide that in August next year.
01:39 While moving police around might make some communities feel safer in the short term,
01:44 whoever wins government is going to have to grapple with how to fund the resources police
01:49 will need long term from an already overstretched territory budget.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]