It was promised as a round the clock police station to keep the public safe in the Darwin suburb of Nightcliff. But days after the fatal stabbing of Nightcliff supermarket owner Linford Feick across the road from that station, business owners are asking why that promise has never been fulfilled.
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00:00A $12 million police station sits dormant across the road from where 71-year-old supermarket
00:08owner Lynford Fike was stabbed to death last week.
00:12We just don't feel safe at all.
00:15The Nightcliff police station was a 2016 election promise opened in 2021 by the former Labor
00:22government who pledged it would have capacity for 24-7 patrols.
00:27When it was built we weren't provided additional staffing to resource that 24-7.
00:31Many in the area are now asking why.
00:34Police station opened, we thought we were getting a 24-7 police station and we didn't.
00:39Since then crime has escalated in this area and we don't have any police presence at all.
00:46I understand the police are under enormous strain and they themselves are saying we cannot arrest
00:51our way out of this.
00:52So why build a police station to give people a false hope?
00:55So it's kind of adding to the hurt that people are feeling like we thought this would make
01:00us safe and it's not.
01:02We understand the concerns that exist within the Nightcliff community.
01:06The Nightcliff environment has changed for various reasons over the recent past and police
01:11provide as much proactive resourcing into that area as we possibly can.
01:16NT police insist that even if the Nightcliff station was fully operational, it wouldn't have
01:21made a difference to their response time following Mr Fyke's stabbing last Wednesday.
01:26The way in which this particular incident transpired was such that it happened very quickly and
01:33police could have been almost standing up front of that shop and this still may have occurred.
01:37Business owners here in Nightcliff say they feel let down and lied to by the previous government
01:43over the promise that this would one day be a 24-7 police station.
01:47They also now say it's up to the current government to make the call to man this facility full time.
01:54It needs to open, it needs to be running 24-7 as promised.
01:57Simple as that.
01:58Get it done Leah.
02:00The NT government says it will hold meetings with police about the future of the Nightcliff station,
02:05but hasn't yet made any commitment to staffing it properly.