Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now joining me live in the studio from the Northern
Territory Police. It is Commander of the Darwin Region, Sean
gil Good morning to you, Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Morning, Katie, morning to your listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Thanks so much for your time this morning now, Sean.
First off, obviously we've got this cyclone looming, no doubt.
The Northern Territory Police do plenty of work to make
sure that everybody's sort of as organized as possible in
these situations.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Absolutely so there's been a lot of planning going on
from a Darwin local and a regional perspective as well.
So Anti Police work really hard with anti emergency Services.
I understand there's going to be a brief after that,
but I can assure you that we're well planned and
prepared for this and we're ready to go to the
(00:43):
next level if we have to do that as well.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, and we're going to catch up with Wayne Snell
from the Anti Emergency Services in about fifteen minutes time,
so we'll talk a little more about it there. But
I would imagine such a coordinated response from all of
our frontline services to make sure that wherever the cyclone
does end up up crossing land that you know, we're
doing everything possible to keep people safe, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And it's probably a good time to note to it.
There's a lot of other government departments who have roles
in emergency response and they're all on board, so they've
been brief regularly. They know what's going on. Wayne Sneill
is probably on my speed dial list at the moment,
so we've been talking to each other so much. So
it's it's a lot of work out. But the good
thing is we've got a pretty experienced cohort in terms
(01:26):
of doing this, and it doesn't take much to activate
them and they basically get in there and know what
they're doing straight away, which is good. So I'm happy
with where we're at and the same. But it's certainly,
as you know, it's a whole government response and everybody
is on board with it.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, Sean, remember how many cyclones you've lived through in
the Northern Territory. Can you think off the top of
your head?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Quite a few. I'm actually a cyclone Tracy baby, So
there you go, a seven year old giving away age now.
But as you're saying, and it's one of those things
you can't take them lightly. You see what's going on
in terms of what this has suggested wind strength and
the life as well. But my view is and are saying,
(02:08):
without taking anything away from Wayne, now is the time
to be prepared. It's also now is not the time
to panic. So there's plenty of work to be done.
Everybody is prepared for it. The good thing is the
community as a whole a pretty resilient of this sort
of thing, and you even know what to do. So
it's really just a matter of moving forward and will
continue to monitor. And I know that there's a lot
(02:29):
of media that's going to be coming up fairly shortly
on that.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, well we will catch up with Wayne in a
round fifteen minutes time. Shawn. Quite a bit going on
at the moment, But from overnight, I understand that the
Northern Territory Police have made an a rest at the
bag Att community.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Is that correct, Yeah, that's correct. So last night we
had a report of a person running around the community
threatening people with an edge weapon and red one stage
throwing a gas bottle at somebody, so obviously that level
offending is concerning. We can report that a sixteen year
old male has been arrested with regards to that and
(03:03):
those investigations are ongoing. But as I was saying, there
was numerous reports about that, and the fact that your
gas bodels and edge weapons and all that is always
cause for concern.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It is a worry. I mean, throwing a gas bottle
at somebody else is a really concerning situation. Was anybody injured?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Oh, look, I don't have any information with regards to that,
but it's one of those things that've got quite a
few phone calls. Obviously it was quite high level of offending.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, and look, I'll get a bit I'll get into
a bit more of that youth offending shortly before I
go there. Though, I know police have been doing a
lot and you, certainly, while in the position of commander,
doing a lot around antisocial behavior as well, quite a
bit over the last couple of weeks. What have your
officer has been out sort of targeting at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Honestly, I'm a man of simple means here and I
like to keep it really simple. So in essence, if
you see you deal with it. So if there's drunks,
you deal them. If there's any social behavior, you deal
with it, and the like as well. So across the board,
it's really just as I said before, we're going across Darwin, Parmestan,
Casuarina and basically targeting all locations at once. It's really
(04:15):
anybody who thinks that they can either carry on or
anybody who gets drunk in a public place and wants
to carry on, I'm very happy to deal with them
and go from there. So just in terms of some
stats for you, so this started on the thirtieth of October,
so that's about nineteen days I think so far. So
there's been sixteen hundred and seventy five letters tipped out,
(04:37):
forty six arrests, fifty four people arrested for protective custody,
and two hundred and thirty seven people have been given
band drinking orders. So again, you know, like a bit
of a hard task master, and I'm not apologetic for
our response in this, to be honest, but we need
(04:59):
to keep it going and we'll continue to keep it
going well.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Absolutely, And I mean like the fact that did you
say sixteen hundred and seventy five liters of alcohol tipped
out correct? Around what area? Just around Darwin and Palmerstown on.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Palmerston case, it's great. A Darlin Darnet Palmerston, cas Aina.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
That's a heck of a lot of alcohol being consumed
in a public place.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Absolutely, absolutely, And we're dealing with, you know, people who
are seasoned drinkers and the like as well, so they
tend to move and you've you've got to be agile
to move with that sort of thing. And the good
thing is we're getting reports from the public as well,
so if you know, sometimes you'll find it's in one
particular area and that it can move. So it's a
matter of moving around and targeting it. But the good
(05:41):
thing is it is being targeted.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Sean, do you have any like do you sort of
know whether they you know, whether it's locals that are
sort of drinking in the long grass, or whether you've
got people coming in from communities or what the go
is at the moment, Oh.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Look at it. It'd be hard for me to say
on that one. I think there's there's a number of
factors at play. You're loath to say specifically which one.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Of the When you look at the volume of alcohol
then that's been tipped out two hundred and thirty seven
people then placed on the bedo just since the thirtieth
of October for that anti social behavior and public drinking.
What kind of impact do you reckon that has sort
of more broadly on some of the issues in that
we see around town in terms of assaults, domestic violence,
(06:25):
breaking entries, all the on flow.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Look, and this is exactly why I did it, and
this is exactly why I wanted to do it. You know,
there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to say that, you know,
these are the drivers of domestic violence, assaults and the
like as well. I think we're a bit early to
call it, but we can. We're seeing some downward trends.
I'm a bit loath to say that we're there yet.
And it's really just maintaining the rage on this for
(06:50):
one of a better word, Like I was just saying,
it's continuing. It's going really really well bad in my view.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
To start, when you do place, you know, that volume
of people on the beady on the you know when
they get a band, drink or order. You know, are
you finding at the moment there's many people sort of
still accessing or trying to access alcohol from those secondary
you know, secondary supply.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Absolutely, So that's that is always part of our planning process,
you know, like you can ban people, then we can
see a spike in terms of secondary supply. So obviously
if we find them, we deal with them. Yeah, pretty
hard at them. Probably good time to note too. I
had a meeting with the Hotel's association in Darwin and
some of the stories in Darwin City. Obviously they have
(07:34):
concerns about things as well. And now it was really
pleasing that they're all on board with this as well.
You know, they want to know what we're doing, and
they said, one of them said, we're all in this together.
So you know, it's really pleasing to see. And there's
some work to do with them, but it certainly everything's
setting in the right direction. And across the board you
can see that people generally just want something done about this,
(07:55):
you know, And it's a coordination piece. I've got a
simple saying for this, but I'll yeah, there's three things
you need to achieve. You need to keep it simple,
you need to keep it coordinated, and you need to
keep it going. So there are three things.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I'm trying to do here well, and that's the thing,
like if you're consistent about it as well, then people
know if they're going to get caught drinking in public.
The police aren't going to put up with it. They're
not going to be able to get away with it.
So hopefully it means that it stops happening.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Absolutely, And I was saying, we'll continue to go with this,
and there's no intentions of me. It's slowing down and
I'm pretty relentless for those you know.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Me, and yeah, we'll keep on it well, And I'm
sure that that will be something that a lot of
listeners will be pleased to hear, particularly if they maybe
run a business in the CBD where they've had to
deal with some of that anti social behavior and the
on flow that comes with it. So I think they'll
be pleased to hear that, Sean, before I let you
go this morning. Over the weekend, a quite a few
(08:48):
incidents will at least a handful of them, but pretty
bad offending by really young people. You know. In Palmerston
we had a situation where there was a group of
offenders walking through the golf course, cutting a fence and
then stealing a buggy, I mean those alleged defenders. That
was last week thirteen sixteen, sixteen and fourteen. Then we
(09:08):
had an aggravated robbery in Palmerston where these five offenders
were then arrested in relation to a break and entry
that happened in Bakewell. Now during that incident, so it
was actually at the servo they've then four females and
one male got into that service station, threatened the employee
with a knife before stealing cash. Turns out they were eleven, thirteen, sixteen,
(09:34):
and seventeen and a fourteen year old. Then another one
these aggravated robberies in Darwin, this one three female youths. Well,
they entered a bottle shop in Leanna, then threatened an
employee with a knife, damage stock fled the scene. Then
they allegedly stopped a vehicle on a grassland crescent in Leanna.
(09:55):
The female driver was dragged out of that car by
the offenders, suffering my their injuries. They're ages twelve, thirteen,
and fourteen. It blows my mind, Like I've got a
daughter and a son that are twelve and fourteen. I
just think I don't even know what I'd do if
I found out that they were doing something like that.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Absolutely insane. You can't sugarcoat that level of offending, you know,
I can't sit here and say it's a great thing
that the positive is. I suppose that the people have
been arrested for that, but we need to get ahead
of the curve and this type of thing and target it.
There is a lot of work going on with regards
to wanding operations as well, so that's one of the drivers.
You know, people with access to weapons and the like.
(10:36):
I know that Palmerston in general do a wanting operation
once a week There was wanting approval in Darwin and
Casu Arena over the weekend. I just don't have the
stats in front of It's all right, and that's also
tiding with some of this antisocial behavior that's part of
their roles and responsibility. So what people can expect is
(10:57):
there will be wanting operations. We will be doing it, yeah, randomly.
As I said, I'm unapologetic for it. And we just
need to do this because you know, the level of
ending when you're producing any form of weapon is scary
and yet you know we're all members of the public
here and be scary for anybody to be confronted with that.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Well, the thing that frightens me is even with that
situation where then you've got you know, these really young
kids pulling out a knife and you know, and threatening
a female driver you know, with that knife allegedly like
all the things that can go wrong, and like they
can ruin their lives by hurting somebody. That might not
(11:37):
be their intention to begin with, but it's such a dangerous,
dangerous situation. But then what could happen to that woman
you know on the receiving end in the vehicle.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Oh, look at it. And you know, without going into it,
there's been some incidents that have ended quite devastating with
and it doesn't take much and to use any sorm
of edge weapon, you know, to commit some sort of crime. Say,
I don't have any sympathy for him in terms of
when they're arrested in their life as well, and whatever
(12:07):
we can do to keep them in custody and keep
them behind we will. Saying it's there's a hard response,
but also there's a lot of work to be done
in terms of the prevention space. And that's where the
winding operations come in. You keep targeting, keep keep keep
it going.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I think, yeah, well that's exactly right. We have to
and I mean the ages of some of those kids. Gee,
you just scratch your head, don't you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Oh, exactly and we're all parents have kids here. It's
just it's not something my kid has ever done like,
and there's plenty of reasons why we into but it's
just something we can't tolerate. We really can't.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
That's exactly right. Well, Sean gil, commander of the Darwin
Region for the Northern Territory Police, really appreciate your time
this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Thanks Codie,