Alice Springs Superintendent Robert Kent says a co-responder program that sees police work with child protection and victim services to exchange information and intervene early to prevent domestic violence is being rolled out in Alice Springs and Palmerston after a successful trial

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, we know that. In an effort to bolster support
for families facing domestic violence, the Northern Territory Police have
launched a coresponder program in Alice Springs and Palmister So Police,
child protection, victim survivor services, and behavior change specialists are
now going to work side by side to intervene earlier
and better coordinate help. The changes aim to combat the

(00:22):
Northern Territory's horrific rates of domestic violence. And joining us
on the show to tell us more about the initiative
in Alice Springs is the Alice Springs Police Superintendent Rob Kens.
Good morning to you, Robert, Good morning Katie, Thanks so
much for your time this morning. Now, how exactly does
the program work?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
So it brings together, as you said, please, child protection
and victims survivor specialists and services that also support people
who use violence, and we come together each day and
we have the ability now to be able to exchange
information and talk about the risks of social out of
our relationships and then do that early intervention piece and
go out and do the engagement and work out what's

(01:06):
affecting people in their lives and how we can best
address what's happening.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
So I know that this has already been operating in
other locations. Well, my understanding is that it has, but
this is the role out now in Alice Springs. Is
that correct?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
So we've been trialing a down and Alice Springs for
most of the year. However on the twenty nine to
September it's rolled out or started formally in both Alice
Springs and Palmsen.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And how does it differ from how we used to
deal with domestic violence callouts?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
It just provides that next level of service. So we
have always assessed the risk, we have always made support
link referrals or referrals to other organizations for support. This
really just formalizes the plan around how we do that
intervention work and provides all the information of the services
that need it so that they're armed and able to

(02:03):
go out and do that work.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
And in terms of the co location of child protection
practitioners and also those behavior change specialists, how do you
reckon it is going to improve the outcomes for both
victim survivors and also children.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, look, it's a really important question though one I'm
very optimistic that this will make some real differences to
the vulnerable members of our community. As I said, it
gives child protection, the victim survivors specialists and the people
who are the services who work with people who use
violence or the firsthand information at the time of you

(02:39):
very shortly after police attendance, so they can do that
early engagement.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Robert, I mean it very often feels like police are
there at you know, like at the cliff face when
these incidents are happening, you know, all the time. How
important is it for the Northern Territory Police as well
to have those other services really intertwine to be able
to you know, to help with what we have seen

(03:04):
become a real crisis for us in the Northern Territory.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, I don't think this will come as a surprise
to yourself or anybody else. It's basically two of the
work that place do is response to domestic violence. So
you know, we have to have other services on board,
child protection and those services that work with the people
who are involved in relationships to help mitigate some of

(03:29):
the risks that involved Robert.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Look, I know it's a question that's potentially a hard
one to answer, but how will the program measure success
or effectiveness? Like what metrics or indicators should be tracked
so that we can tell whether it's working, because I
guess that's been another thing that's been long discussed across
the Northern Territory, the fact that we over the years
have had plenty of different programs, plenty of different models,

(03:52):
and you know, some of them have worked really effectively.
For some who are watching from the outside in, they're thinking,
these numbers just continue to grow and we continue to
see really tragic deaths, So how will we measure, you know,
whether this is effective.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Look, there will be a system of reviewers the project continues. However,
you know, I don't think in the short term you're
going to see necessari or reduction in the number of
incidences that police attend. We're still going to have two
thirds of our response is probably going to be committed
to domestic violence response. What I think you'll see in
the long term is a reduction in the level of

(04:31):
violence and other stuff that is associated with domestic violence.
As he rightly pointed out, how our death rate is
associated with domestic violence is horrendous and that is something
that we're really keen to see produced well.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Alice Springs, Superintendent of the Northern Territory Police Robert Kent,
I really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
for chatting with us.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Thanks for having me, Katie.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Thank you