Strike Force Trident Detective Senior Sergeant Dale Motter-Bernard says a girl has been arrested after allegedly stealing a golf buggy and crashing it in Palmerston overnight

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we've spoken at length about the fact that Stripeforce
Trident had to respond to crimesprey across starwinstaun suburbs earlier
this week. It included an attempted carjacking, multiple burglaries and
the theft of scooters.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Now, four youths, as.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
I understanded, age between thirteen and fifteen, are in custody
or were in custody following swift arrests made by Strikeforce
Trident and the Dog Operations Unit. Investigations do remain ongoing.
My understanding is that an adult has also been arrested.
Now joining us on the show is Dale Motte Barnard,
senior sergeant with the Strikeforce Trident.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Good morning to you.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Dale, Good morning Katie, good garding to your listeners.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Great have you in the studio. I appreciate your time
because I know it's been busy. Before we get into
the incidents from earlier in the week, I understand last
night was a busy.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Night as well.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, look, there are a number of things that took
place yesterday evening related to a group of two.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
Resulting from that, we've got a sixteen year old female
in custody at the moment, detigations are still in the
early stages of still getting statements in CCTV footage, but
essentially what's occurred is this female and another male we
believe to be an adult, have caused a disturbance at
a licensed premise in Palmerston. There was some threats made

(01:16):
to the staff there, some alcohol stolen that then left there,
hassled a member of the public who was playing golf,
ended up stealing his golf buggy. They've driven that to
a business premises in Durak. There was a disturbance there
there of caused somebody issues there. They've left and crashed
the golf buggy and the females apprehended by some members
of the public who did a really good job.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
What time of the day did all this occur.

Speaker 4 (01:39):
Between about six thirty and seven point thirty at night?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Was that sixteen year old previously known to police or
on bail or anything.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
She's definitely known to us, but at present she's not
on bail or subject to any restraint.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
So at this point in time, though, has she's been
held in custody.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Yeah, she's currently in custody at the moment. And once
we finished our investigations should be charged at a later
time today.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
All right, Dale, it sounds like it's been a busy
week for you guys. I think it's safe to say
that it always is. I might just I'm keen to
get a little bit more further detail about the incident
that occurred, well, the several incidents that occurred a little
earlier in the week. So we had a situation, of
course where there was a crime series. I know that
a number of people have now been arrested, but it appears,

(02:24):
and correct me if I'm wrong, that it started in
the city with a pretty violent well in a pretty
violent way. I think you'd have to say with you
it's allegedly assaulting a victim and threatening that person with
an aged weapon.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Is that the case.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
Well, we've finished the investigations. That was the information that
was released initially, but over time and since we've finalized
most of our investigations have been able to get a
pretty accurate timeline of when it started. That actually started
about nine point thirty pm on the twenty ninth at
a service station in lud Miller. It involved aggravated robbery

(02:56):
taking place there where the service station and tenants were
threatened with a weapon in the process of stealing items
and then went on from their business premises in Stuart
Park was broken into, several cars were damaged, and then
it just didn't really stop from there. The carjacking that
you're talking, all the attempted carjacking that you're just mentioning,
then that took place in the city and then a

(03:18):
number of businesses in.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
The city were targeted.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
A scooter was stolen, and then that was then news
to go on and basically commit the crime spree for
the rest of the night. So I'm in total there
were nine businesses that were broken into, and that was
split between the city when Elli Krama, Milner Casarina was
pretty much all over the place. And there were two victims,
like so civilian victims, yeah, that were threatened with edge weapons.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
Are they okay, They're okay?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, I mean that's it is a massive crime spree.
At nine businesses to be targeted, two victims, you know,
two territorianess who are probably going to be frightened to
go out on the street from this point after being
threatened in such a It's a terrible, terrible thing to
have happened. Now, from what I can gather, the police
have now arrested is it five people?

Speaker 4 (04:07):
So there were five involved in the crime spree, so
four thirteen year olds and one twenty two year old adult.
There was a group of youths with that group earlier
in the night. One of them was arrested for breaching
his bail. However, he had no involvement in the crime
spree that followed. Okay, so everyone from that crime spree
is now been arrested. They've all been remanded overnight and

(04:30):
they'll be in court today.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
So they've all been remanded overnight, and I guess it
will now come down to what the court determines happens next.
But from what I can gather, you know, they've had
interactions as long as you're arm you know, in some
cases hundreds of interactions with police.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, that's correct.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Look, all five of them, well, the four youths are
on bail. The male adult was subject to warrants for
failing to appear in court. So they're all obviously quite
well known to us. All four of those youths were
meant to be electronically monitored, however only two of them
actually had devices that were charged and transmitting data.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
So one of the big questions that we get all
the time from our listeners, and I'm not sure whether
this is one for you something that I need to
ask correct corrections, but how are those you know, those
monitoring bracelets actually monitored because a lot of people sort
of going well fee if they're in a situation where
they've got those bracelets on, how can they then be
going on a crime spray.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
So there's a service provider that monitor that and that's
done twenty four hours a day. And then when breaches
are detected, all the devices are going flat or they've.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Been tampered with them removed.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
That is then modified to the owner of that device
and then escalated to police.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
And so it looks as though there is.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
You know, there's a number of young people involved, four
thirteen year olds and then one adult, and they've like
you were able to sort of tell us.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, you may not.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Be able to go into the specifics, but in terms
of how many interactions they have previously had with police,
our understanding is it's among the group.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It's an awful losh.

Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, it's hundreds amongst the group. I couldn't give you
an exact number because I haven't looked into that, but
certainly the youths alone, well, they were repeat offenders, so
they're once we're constantly dealing with. There's hundreds of interactions
there with police over time help, numerous prosecution files being
submitted and that's why they're on bail.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
At the moment. Now.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
In terms of their chargers from the crime spree, what
have they been charged with?

Speaker 4 (06:32):
So there are ninety three charges in total. Each youth
basically had different charges dependent on their involvement. Not all
of the youths had the same involvement as the others,
but multiple counts of burglary, multiple counts of robbery, theft,
damage to property, driving using writing, motor vehicle without consent,

(06:52):
breach of bail. There's a lot of ninety three charges.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Ninety three that's I mean, it's a massive amount of charges,
and we're you run through what had happened earlier in
the week. You can understand why they're facing such a
large number of charges. Dale, I know that Strikeforce Trident
is always incredibly busy, but by the look of things
and from what I can gather, you know, just based

(07:15):
on some of the discussions that we've had even over
the last month. It's been a very busy few months
for you guys.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Has Nash.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yeah, Look, Katie, unfortunately, we're always really busy in Trident.
There's just such a sheer volume of stuff going on
that we end up taking on to try and resolve
to sort of give you and your listeners a bit
of an idea of what goes on. So, since the
first of July, Trident have submitted or commenced five hundred

(07:42):
and thirteen individual prosecutions, So two hundred and eighty three
of those relate to youth prosecution and two hundred and
thirty to adults. Now, out of those two hundred and
eighty three youths, one hundred and thirty four of them
are on the bail or on bail at the time
that the prosecution commands. And out of that total number
of five hundred and thirteen, four hundred and forty five

(08:05):
of them are what we would call repeat offenders. And
when we talk about repeat offenders, what we're sort of
talking about there is they've committed that type of offending
previously and it's been dealt with by police.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
I think people are going to be pretty shocked to
hear those numbers.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
Look, I just clarify that that is just Trident that
are dealing with that. The overall numbers for the agency,
I couldn't tell you about it. That's just us in Tride.
And that's just since the first of July. So we
have been really busy.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
It sounds like you've been incredibly busy. I mean just
looking at those numbers. So five hundred and thirteen prosecutions,
two hundred and eighty three of those youths in one
hundred and thirty four of those situations.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
They were already on bail. Correct something strong, you know,
Like that's all for me.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
I'm hearing that out loud, and I'm thinking we're doing
something very wrong here if we have got kids that
are you know, that are repeat offending and we've and look,
you know, this is me going on a rank Dale.
I'm not expecting you to comment, but I just think
if there's not some programs, if there's not some intervention
in some way after they offend in the first instance,

(09:16):
then how do we expect there to be a correction
of behavior? But you know, those numbers are massive, and
it's also a huge Like you guys go to work
every day and you know, why you go to work
every day to keep territory in safe and to help people,
But it must become frustrating when you are interacting with

(09:37):
the same people very often.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, look, it's immensely frustrating for us because at the
end of the day, it is the same offenders committing
the same offenses and more often than not, targeting the
same businesses and the same victims.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
And that is the case yesterday.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Those same offenders that we arrested have targeted the same
businesses multiple times previously and have been before the court
for it, and then we're the with.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
It again just on another day.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, it is Look, it's it's tough work that you
guys do. You do it an incredible job and I
know that it is a lot of teamwork as well,
from tried and the Dog Operations Unit, everybody within the
Northern Territory Police. We've got to see some change, We
truly have to see some change in the behavior that
we are experiencing across the Northern Territory.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
But yeah, what you've I mean, what you've dealt.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
With earlier in the week as well that that crime series,
those like I feel for those business operators.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
You're just trying to open your business and do your job.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:34):
Absolutely, Look, it's extremely damaging for them because it's not
just the you know, the financial cost of having to
repair the damage, but it's also more often than not,
the staff that work at those places don't want to
turn up to work to be threatened or to end
up as victims or to have their stuff stolen, and
then they quite often resign from those types of businesses

(10:56):
and leave, and then that leaves the business short. Yeah,
there's a lot of flow, there's asive flow on effect
from it, and a lot of the time it's just
malicious behavior for no good reason.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Dale Malter Barnard, Senior Sergeant with Strike Force Strident.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
I always appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
I think it's really important for the community to sort
of know the work that the Northern Territory Police are
doing and also have a better understanding of, you know,
what you're dealing with in different ways as well in
terms of just the sheer volume of people that you're
dealing with each and every.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Day and from month to month. So we really appreciate
you coming in this morning. Thank you very much for
having a chat with me.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Thanks Katie, thank you