Acting Assistant Commissioner James O’Brien says police have arrested 35 people a total of 221 times and charged them with 1,785 offences in a 9 month period

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gee, there has been a lot happening when it comes
to the work to being done by our Northern Territory Police.
And joining me on the line right now is the
acting Assistant Commissioner James O'Brien. Good morning to you, morning, Katie. Hey.
A woman last night hospitalized by the look of things,
after a violent assault in Darwin. She was allegedly kicked

(00:21):
and punched by two people at a block of units
in Coconut Grove as I understand.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
And my understanding is that that is now under an investigation,
So the tectives will be working on that matter today
and hopefully when she's well enough to make a statement,
they'll be able to speak to her.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, right, So any understanding at this point as to
how she's going.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
No, we haven't had an update this morning, but we
expect more information by later today once the detectives no more.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, now, James, there was also in Catherine overnight a
woman's been arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, and I haven't got the details of that through yet,
still waiting, but it's not good.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
No, well, and it's and you know, it just goes
like it. Unfortunately, we seem to be seeing quite a
bit of this, you know, people doing the wrong thing
and assaulting our hard working police and it's it's just
woeful some of this behavior.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
And what we've had just recently is we've had an
assault on a female police officer in Darwin here which
was quite violent. That person was taken before the court
and pleaded guilty and received a two hundred dollar fine.
So wow, really seen in the message?

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Is it not at all? James? I mean that's that
is a terrible situation.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, it certainly is.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, and you like, it must be tough for you guys.
I mean you're going to work every day, you know
that it's going to be dangerous at different times. But
then having to worry about being assaulted, I think is
it's it's a terrible thing to have to worry about,
it is, Kate.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's something that we're constantly aware of in our surroundings
when we're out on the road, Like I've been doing
this for twenty nine years, and you know, it's still
a situation that you have to be well aware of it.
There are people out there who have disregarded to the
police and will assault and it makes it worse when
they assault people who are trying to help them, like

(02:22):
some John Ambulance and other services.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, it really does. And I mean then for somebody
to get a two hundred dollar fine after pleading guilty. Look,
I just think that that's pretty disgusting. Yep.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I don't sit well with the members, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
No, I would imagine it wouldn't. Hey, there is so
much to cover off on over the last couple of days.
I'll tell you what. Let's go firstly to the Northern
Territory Police charging three boys age twelve, thirteen and sixteen
for property related defending in the Greater Darwin region over
the weekend Stripeforce, Trident and the Dog Operations Unit. Those

(03:00):
boys earlier in the week more than fifty offenses. By
the look of USh and Katie.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
That just goes to show what an impact a small
number of people can have on a large portion of
the community. Now, if you've just got to say, I'll
take you to some other statistics the show recidivism and
the effect that has on the community. Over the period
of one July to thirty one Mars twenty two to
twenty three, three hundred and seventy six youths were identified

(03:31):
as offenders. Now, out of the three hundred and seventy
six youth thirty five of those youth were apprehended five
or more times, and the thirty five who are apprehended
five or more times were apprehended a total of two
hundred and twenty one times. And out of the two
hundred and twenty one apprehensions, they were charged for one thousand,

(03:52):
seven hundred and eighty five offenses.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
So that just gives you an idea that whilst there's
three hundred and seventy six separate youths, thirty five of
them committed one than seven hundred and eighty five offences.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
That is a massive number. And I don't know if
you've got the level of detail in front of you,
but do you have any idea of like, you know,
the age the age group of those people.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
We haven't broken that down yet, but the age group
is from ten to seventeen.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Oh goodness mate. I mean that makes it hard then
as well for for the Northern Territory Police in terms
of doing your jobs. But when you're apprehending the same
group of youths like three hundred and seventy seven of
these youths. And then if I've if I've heard that correctly,
two hundred and twenty one times for one thousand, seven
hundred and eighty five offences. They're enormous numbers from a

(04:50):
small group.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
That's a small group of thirty five youth. So that's
what we're dealing with the coal face.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, James, any idea at this point in time, like,
are they youth that are from right around the northern territory?
Are they youth that are Darwin based? Do we know
at this point?

Speaker 2 (05:07):
No, that's the youth from across the territory. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
And the reason I ask is that I know there
has been some reporting this morning on the ABC that well,
a small group I'm hesitant to even name them because
I don't want to give them any kind of publicity,
but that there is work being done by the territory
police to really put a stop to, you know, what
these blokes are doing. They're they've named themselves after I

(05:32):
guess the nineties you know nineties band or a nineties
music musical performer. But the police are working to try
to stop their offending. They hail from Pepperminati. Is my
understanding what work is being done to try and stop
what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
So the region remote police footprint has been enhanced to
deal with the larger than more common offending of that group.
What we prefer to do is not name them because
they do this for the notoriety.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
We know that.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
And since we have been working more collaboratively in that space,
they have settled down a bit.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
And so what kind of work are the police doing
collaborative with the people of that area and I guess
with the elders and with the group of offenders.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
To well, we sent more police into What Air Four
of them are we there till the end of this month,
and they've required are we rotated out and the new
cohort will be sent in. That gives a bigger footprint
across the pepper MINARTI Plumper and What Air environment, which
is where these people are happy. Also, we're setting up

(06:48):
roadblocks regularly that check for alcohol and drugs, drink driving
and all the traffic offenses that go with that. And
pretty much we're just keeping a firm footprint on that environment,
trying to try to calm it down.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, and from what I'd heard on ABC News this morning,
a report by Matt Garrick. You know, you've even got
like you've got community leaders and people in the community
saying we've just had enough of it.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, that's been the commentary for quite some time, and
I don't blame it. Yeah, you know a lot of
the violence and the damage is just.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Mindless, it really is. Now. I do want to also
ask unfortunately, we know that there's been a terrible situation.
I'm not sure if you've got much detail of a
chopper crash that occurred yesterday.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yes, top crash out at Limbogna. Detectives from Catherine are
on their way today. Not a lot is known at
this state is very remote. They should be arriving sometime
around lunch. Australia and Transport Safety Bureau will also be attending. Hopefully,
over time we'll be able to get the details exactly

(08:03):
what's happened to this young person.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, we'll keep a very close eye on that as well.
We do have a statement which we received from Top
End Mustering and I will read that out in a
little while. Another story that we found out about yesterday,
Northern Territory Police have charged a forty nine year old
man last Thursday in relation to a historical sexual assault
that occurred in Darwin on the twenty ninth of October,

(08:26):
all the way back in nineteen ninety three. Now, at
that time, a twenty two year old female left the
former night club Derby's and was allegedly sexually assaulted by
two unknown males later that night at East Point. Thirty
years later, a DNA profile of a now fifty two
year old man was obtained and that arrest was made

(08:46):
last year. But subsequent testing now has matched one of
two DNA profiles from the nineteen ninety three sexual assault investigation,
and further inquiries identified a forty nine year old suspect
as well.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
That's correat, Katie. So that just goes to show that
the evidence can last a long time and come back
to haunt people who commit offenses. That matter is now
before the court also, so we need to be careful
about what we say. Yeah, but that's excellent work from
our forensic people.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
Jen. It goes to show you, I guess as well,
the way in which some of that DNA testing and
some of the forensics have changed over the years.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Well, that's right, and I recall an incident in Adelaide
where the forensic pathologists at the time, many many years
ago didn't have the technology to actually do the assessment
on the evidence and decided to put in the freezer
for I think thirty plus years and when technology caught
up they were able to then do the process and

(09:47):
find the offender.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Wow. Yeah, this is a thing. You can't run away
from the crimes that you've committed, that is for sure, James.
Anything else from overnight over All the last couple of
days that we should be aware of.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Has been going pretty well, Katie, possibly due to our
beautiful weather at the moment, but just talking about staffing
numbers are just quickly running through what we're looking at
now to try and increase our ability to deliver services.
The Acting Commissioner, Michael Murphy has a clear vision for

(10:20):
recruiting above attrition. He's working with the Minister and they're
going to be continuing to push as many recruits through
as possible. At the moment, we've got Squad one five
to one thirty two members. They'll be out on twenty
two September. They'll be going to Darwin, Catherine, Tennant and Alice.

(10:41):
We've got the Accelerated Recruit Squad as ten members they'll
be coming out on eighteen August. They'll be going to
Alice Springs, Borolula and Darwin Squad one fifty three. It's
planned for forty five, so we've already sent letters of
offer to forty five suitable people will be coming in

(11:01):
and it looks like nineteen from Interstate, twenty six from
the MT. They commence on thirty one July twenty three,
so not far off.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Now.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
We're also recruiting constantly for auxiliaries for frontline, Jesk and Watchhouse,
and we have a number of those courses posts as well,
so that should really bolster the frontline police presence.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
I mean, how important is it for you guys to
have as many officers as you can have really on
the front line and out there keeping the community safe.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Well, the fact is, Katie, we can always use more officers.
But the fact that we can use more officers doesn't
mean we're understaffed. So we have good levels of staffing,
and it does fluctuate due to injury, illness and other
things that take people out of the workplace. But if
we recruit to this level, I think this will give
us the fat so to speak, to actually continue to

(11:56):
bolster the frontline as it needed.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
And James, I know that's something that the acting Police
Commissioner Michael Murphy had said to us when he was
on the show recently, is that he was doing his
level best to get some of those people back from
leave that had been on extended leave or that had
been away for various reasons, including in some cases discipline
re issues. Have you seen much of a bolstering in

(12:19):
terms of those numbers, Well, not.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Immediately, but we have seen an increase in communication between
those members and our HR department and seeing members. I
think it's a great plan to re engage with these
people and try and get them back to work in
some capacity, and good on mister Murphy for doing it.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah. Well, look, the more police that we have on
the frontline obviously are the better everybody feels. We know
that the police are working incredibly hard, and I think
when you look at all those pressure releases, will all
that info that we've seen come through over the recent
days goes to show you that we certainly need you
guys working out there hard. I mean those numbers that
you'd taken us through earlier in terms of those youths

(13:00):
and the level of apprehension and recidivism. I think that
there's going to be plenty of people listening this morning
who are pretty sort of surprised to hear that.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
And that's the idea of this, Katie, is to get
the information out to the people so that they can
be fully informed on what's going on in their community.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah. Well, Acting Assistant Commissioner James O'Brien, good to catch
up with you again, and no doubt we'll talk to
you again soon.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
You too, Katie, You too.