June 1, 2026 • 10 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know that police ordered more than twelve one hundred
people to leave public spaces across Palmerston in the first
two weeks of an operation targeting anti social behavior in
known hotspots, making forty arrests. So Operation Venturer was launched
on May eighteen in response to what the Northern Territory
Police called a concerning rise in numbers of assault and
(00:22):
total property offenses across Palmerston. Joining us on the show
is the Northern Territory Police Superintendent for Palmerston. Katie had
a smilers good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Good morning Katie and thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,
can you talk me through how things are tracking at
this point.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, so things are going really well and as you said,
there's been a lot of a lot of engagement within
the community, moving over twelve hundred people on from those
public places and that's through our high visibility patrols where
we're engaging with members of the public and so with
our partner agencies patrolling through those known hotspots. And when
(01:05):
we're moving people on, you know they may be loitering,
acting suspiciously, or be in a group drinking alcohol or
just not using that space for the purpose that it's
actually intended. So we move them on from there to
make it a safe space for the people that need
to use it for what it was intended. And so
you know, that forms a big part. Obviously, we're also
(01:27):
tipping out lots of alcohol six hundred and eighty five leaders.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Six hundred and eighty five liters.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, it's it's a very big number. And you know,
we know that reducing alcohol and reducing alcohol related harm
correlates to seeing you know, less victimization, so it's really
important that we're doing that work.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
This is you know, this is the thing. Quite often
if people are drinking in you know, in a public
space for hours or for quite a long period of time,
we know that then that behavior is going to deteriorate,
you know, you're drinking publicly or whether you're drinking somewhere else,
but particularly in those public spaces, and then, like you
touched on, you've got people wanting to.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Use those public spaces. So it makes it really difficult
for the whole community.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, it does. And you know, we want the community
to feel safe going about their daily, daily business, and
that's part of the high visibility operation. And the public
are seeing police out there, they're seeing us with our
partner agencies. The last week, they would have seen us
with our public police public safety officers who were out
on the job training for the week. So it was
(02:32):
a really really visible presence.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So tell us a little bit more about those police
public safety officers that are involved in that training out there.
How are they sort of helping, I guess to boost
that visibility but also help you guys to get out
there and do that work.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So they got to got an opportunity to come out
and use the skills and knowledge that they've learned in training,
and they are going to be the people that do
this work when they graduate come June and then another
squad in September, so they'll be really bolstering our public
safety patrols, the public housing, the transit that that's going
to be their role. So it was really important opportunity
(03:10):
for them to work with our Territory Safety Division members
who they will form a part of and see the
work that they'll be doing and bolstering the numbers. Just
gave us that, you know, the extra capacity to wand
people if we needed to have chats with people, see
what people were doing move people on enforce the drinking laws,
(03:30):
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Superintendent, we know the forty people have been arrested. What
kind of offenses are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, so that some of those are antisocial behavior offenses.
Others include breaches of bail. For example, this week just
gone we had our mounted police out in Palmerston and
they've come across some youths that were all in breach
of their bay. Also three youths arrested and then Trident
were out there and helped them complete the arrest. So yeah,
(04:01):
those sorts of things just what we're coming across could
be people with warrants, breaching parole orders, suspended sentences, breach
of dbos.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So even when you talk about those breach of bail,
I guess for me, I don't know exactly what that means.
So we're talking sort of, you know, maybe teenagers that
aren't meant to be in the company of other teenagers
or home at a certain time exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So they've been given bail to be at liberty and
that bail has conditions with that, and then they're breaching
one of those conditions, as you said, not to associate,
not to be at a certain location to be at
home during certain hours. So, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
To hear because I know that that is something that
people quite often ask us. They sort of go, you know,
if someone's got an ankle bracelet on, why are they
allowed to be out at midnight or whatever? So it's
good to hear that that's something that the police are
obviously looking at and following up on.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Now tell me I understand that police sees sixteen weapons
during nearly four hundred and seventy wand searches.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yes, when did like so when we were doing the wanting.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So last week we had two authorities in place and
same with the week before, and they the members are
wanding out in public places in what's considered to be
the high risk area of the Parmesan CBD and bus exchange.
Just you know, there's no rhyme or reason as to
who they want. Everyone gets wandered if they're wanding in
(05:25):
that area. And of those weapons that we sees, there
were a number of knives, scissors seemed to be yeah,
quite common, a few blunt instruments and there was a hammer.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, right, so blunt instruments.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
What it like bats or maybe spanner or something like that.
That's just not stipulated in the thing the reports that
I'm getting, but it says blunt so not an edged weapon,
not a knife, not scissors.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
But they're not We're not talking trade easier. We're talking
about people who should not be.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
They had no they had no excuse to be having
those items on them at the time, or that.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's not good now tell me.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I know that some people will look at the numbers
of those being moved on and sort of say, are
we just moving the problem somewhere else?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I get that people would say that, and sometimes
it may be we are moving them to another place.
But part of working with those partnered agencies is that
we have other support services with us whilst we're doing
those patrols. For example, Larachia Nation, I know in the
last week they were able to do twenty three referrals
(06:31):
for return to country. So whilst there are some that
are just moving from place to place because they don't
want to seek help or take any help from police,
there are others that we can refer on to other
agencies for further support, and we are doing that as
we go.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Talk us through some of that work that is happening
as well with the other agencies, because even last time
you're on, I've mentioned to you that we'd had a
number of parents that have got kids at school at
a school long every avenue there where they've been dealing
with some of the anti social behavior from how tenants
have you I understand you guys been working quite closely
with Housing.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We have. We've been working very closely with Housing in
each of our joint patrols that we've had with them.
Emory Avenue is definitely one of those areas that is
being being given some attention. That's definitely on their list
of priorities. There are a number of others across Palmerston
as well, and you know, the public Housing Safety Offices
are working with those tenants. You know, they look for breaches,
(07:28):
they've given notice of directions and you know also we've
tipped out alcohol in those alcohol restricted premises and things
like that. So there is ongoing work there. We're working
with them to do the patrols. They've got that work to,
you know, work through whether those tendencies continue or you
know how that goes.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Katie, I've got a message from a listener a little
bit earlier this morning, and she'd said she'd woken to
a big hole in her fence and somebody had stolen
her husband's motorbike out in Palmerston. I know that operations
like this are never going to stop all of the crime.
I mean, obviously you're hoping it's going to have a
significant impact though.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, I think so, and we are already seeing we're
already seeing a reduction in the number of jobs waiting
to be dispatched in the Palmerston area as a result
of the last three weeks of work that the Ventura
has been doing. We've our targeted patrols through the Territory
Safety Division and our Public Order and you know, any
(08:27):
social behavior responses are ending around ten pm. That's sort
of it's that afternoon, early early evening where we're seeing
most of those anti social behaviors. So if those offenses
are happening after ours, we haven't got people out there
for Ventura. But obviously we have our Parmeston Police members
around and unfortunately we can't be everywhere. We can't be
(08:49):
at every house, every street, but you know, we do patrol.
We do know our hotspot areas. We know that we've
had you know, some spikes in some of the suburbs
of those types happening in the later evening, and we've
got dedicated patrols in those areas where our operational response
requirements allow.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
So how many more weeks is the operation going for.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We've got another five weeks, so we're going for two months.
So wow.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I mean it's a long time to run an operation.
But it feels like the police really want to kind
of drive down these incidences that you're seeing in Palmerston.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, the we again, we
want the community to feel safe. We know that the
crime statistics had had it seen an increase in some
crime types. So this is the work that we're doing
to try and get those crime types back down. But
this work will continue after Op VENTURER finishes anyway, because
it is the work of the Territory Safety Division. They
(09:45):
do do these public place patrols. They will have the ppsos,
so all of that work will continue. It just won't
be under the banner of Op Venture at that time,
or it may.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Be Yeah, see how long, See how long it guys,
We'll Superintendent of the Palmerston Region, Katie Hats the smilest
from the Northern Territory Police.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Really good to speak to you this morning. I appreciate
your time. Thank you, Katie, thank you
We know that police ordered more than twelve one hundred
people to leave public spaces across Palmerston in the first
two weeks of an operation targeting anti social behavior in
known hotspots, making forty arrests. So Operation Venturer was launched
on May eighteen in response to what the Northern Territory
Police called a concerning rise in numbers of assault and
(00:22):
total property offenses across Palmerston. Joining us on the show
is the Northern Territory Police Superintendent for Palmerston. Katie had
a smilers good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Good morning Katie and thanks for having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now,
can you talk me through how things are tracking at
this point.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yes, so things are going really well and as you said,
there's been a lot of a lot of engagement within
the community, moving over twelve hundred people on from those
public places and that's through our high visibility patrols where
we're engaging with members of the public and so with
our partner agencies patrolling through those known hotspots. And when
(01:05):
we're moving people on, you know they may be loitering,
acting suspiciously, or be in a group drinking alcohol or
just not using that space for the purpose that it's
actually intended. So we move them on from there to
make it a safe space for the people that need
to use it for what it was intended. And so
you know, that forms a big part. Obviously, we're also
(01:27):
tipping out lots of alcohol six hundred and eighty five leaders.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Six hundred and eighty five liters.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, it's it's a very big number. And you know,
we know that reducing alcohol and reducing alcohol related harm
correlates to seeing you know, less victimization, so it's really
important that we're doing that work.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
This is you know, this is the thing. Quite often
if people are drinking in you know, in a public
space for hours or for quite a long period of time,
we know that then that behavior is going to deteriorate,
you know, you're drinking publicly or whether you're drinking somewhere else,
but particularly in those public spaces, and then, like you
touched on, you've got people wanting to.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Use those public spaces. So it makes it really difficult
for the whole community.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Yeah, it does. And you know, we want the community
to feel safe going about their daily, daily business, and
that's part of the high visibility operation. And the public
are seeing police out there, they're seeing us with our
partner agencies. The last week, they would have seen us
with our public police public safety officers who were out
on the job training for the week. So it was
(02:32):
a really really visible presence.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
So tell us a little bit more about those police
public safety officers that are involved in that training out there.
How are they sort of helping, I guess to boost
that visibility but also help you guys to get out
there and do that work.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So they got to got an opportunity to come out
and use the skills and knowledge that they've learned in training,
and they are going to be the people that do
this work when they graduate come June and then another
squad in September, so they'll be really bolstering our public
safety patrols, the public housing, the transit that that's going
to be their role. So it was really important opportunity
(03:10):
for them to work with our Territory Safety Division members
who they will form a part of and see the
work that they'll be doing and bolstering the numbers. Just
gave us that, you know, the extra capacity to wand
people if we needed to have chats with people, see
what people were doing move people on enforce the drinking laws,
(03:30):
et cetera.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Superintendent, we know the forty people have been arrested. What
kind of offenses are we talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, so that some of those are antisocial behavior offenses.
Others include breaches of bail. For example, this week just
gone we had our mounted police out in Palmerston and
they've come across some youths that were all in breach
of their bay. Also three youths arrested and then Trident
were out there and helped them complete the arrest. So yeah,
(04:01):
those sorts of things just what we're coming across could
be people with warrants, breaching parole orders, suspended sentences, breach
of dbos.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So even when you talk about those breach of bail,
I guess for me, I don't know exactly what that means.
So we're talking sort of, you know, maybe teenagers that
aren't meant to be in the company of other teenagers
or home at a certain time exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
So they've been given bail to be at liberty and
that bail has conditions with that, and then they're breaching
one of those conditions, as you said, not to associate,
not to be at a certain location to be at
home during certain hours. So, yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
To hear because I know that that is something that
people quite often ask us. They sort of go, you know,
if someone's got an ankle bracelet on, why are they
allowed to be out at midnight or whatever? So it's
good to hear that that's something that the police are
obviously looking at and following up on.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Now tell me I understand that police sees sixteen weapons
during nearly four hundred and seventy wand searches.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yes, when did like so when we were doing the wanting.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So last week we had two authorities in place and
same with the week before, and they the members are
wanding out in public places in what's considered to be
the high risk area of the Parmesan CBD and bus exchange.
Just you know, there's no rhyme or reason as to
who they want. Everyone gets wandered if they're wanding in
(05:25):
that area. And of those weapons that we sees, there
were a number of knives, scissors seemed to be yeah,
quite common, a few blunt instruments and there was a hammer.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Yeah, right, so blunt instruments.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
What it like bats or maybe spanner or something like that.
That's just not stipulated in the thing the reports that
I'm getting, but it says blunt so not an edged weapon,
not a knife, not scissors.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
But they're not We're not talking trade easier. We're talking
about people who should not be.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
They had no they had no excuse to be having
those items on them at the time, or that.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's not good now tell me.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
I know that some people will look at the numbers
of those being moved on and sort of say, are
we just moving the problem somewhere else?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I get that people would say that, and sometimes
it may be we are moving them to another place.
But part of working with those partnered agencies is that
we have other support services with us whilst we're doing
those patrols. For example, Larachia Nation, I know in the
last week they were able to do twenty three referrals
(06:31):
for return to country. So whilst there are some that
are just moving from place to place because they don't
want to seek help or take any help from police,
there are others that we can refer on to other
agencies for further support, and we are doing that as
we go.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Talk us through some of that work that is happening
as well with the other agencies, because even last time
you're on, I've mentioned to you that we'd had a
number of parents that have got kids at school at
a school long every avenue there where they've been dealing
with some of the anti social behavior from how tenants
have you I understand you guys been working quite closely
with Housing.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
We have. We've been working very closely with Housing in
each of our joint patrols that we've had with them.
Emory Avenue is definitely one of those areas that is
being being given some attention. That's definitely on their list
of priorities. There are a number of others across Palmerston
as well, and you know, the public Housing Safety Offices
are working with those tenants. You know, they look for breaches,
(07:28):
they've given notice of directions and you know also we've
tipped out alcohol in those alcohol restricted premises and things
like that. So there is ongoing work there. We're working
with them to do the patrols. They've got that work to,
you know, work through whether those tendencies continue or you
know how that goes.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Katie, I've got a message from a listener a little
bit earlier this morning, and she'd said she'd woken to
a big hole in her fence and somebody had stolen
her husband's motorbike out in Palmerston. I know that operations
like this are never going to stop all of the crime.
I mean, obviously you're hoping it's going to have a
significant impact though.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, I think so, and we are already seeing we're
already seeing a reduction in the number of jobs waiting
to be dispatched in the Palmerston area as a result
of the last three weeks of work that the Ventura
has been doing. We've our targeted patrols through the Territory
Safety Division and our Public Order and you know, any
(08:27):
social behavior responses are ending around ten pm. That's sort
of it's that afternoon, early early evening where we're seeing
most of those anti social behaviors. So if those offenses
are happening after ours, we haven't got people out there
for Ventura. But obviously we have our Parmeston Police members
around and unfortunately we can't be everywhere. We can't be
(08:49):
at every house, every street, but you know, we do patrol.
We do know our hotspot areas. We know that we've
had you know, some spikes in some of the suburbs
of those types happening in the later evening, and we've
got dedicated patrols in those areas where our operational response
requirements allow.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
So how many more weeks is the operation going for.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We've got another five weeks, so we're going for two months.
So wow.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I mean it's a long time to run an operation.
But it feels like the police really want to kind
of drive down these incidences that you're seeing in Palmerston.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, the we again, we
want the community to feel safe. We know that the
crime statistics had had it seen an increase in some
crime types. So this is the work that we're doing
to try and get those crime types back down. But
this work will continue after Op VENTURER finishes anyway, because
it is the work of the Territory Safety Division. They
(09:45):
do do these public place patrols. They will have the ppsos,
so all of that work will continue. It just won't
be under the banner of Op Venture at that time,
or it may.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Be Yeah, see how long, See how long it guys,
We'll Superintendent of the Palmerston Region, Katie Hats the smilest
from the Northern Territory Police.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Really good to speak to you this morning. I appreciate
your time. Thank you, Katie, thank you
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