Mrs LAMBLEY - 2011-03-31
The town is full of rumours that the extra police brought in to deal with your public relations problem will be heading back to Darwin in the very near future, even in the next day or two. When will those extra police be taken out of Alice Springs? With the police starting to make a difference on the ground, will you today match the Country Liberals long-standing commitment to permanently increase Alice Springs police numbers by 20? While you are at it, will you also match our commitment to return the CCTV monitoring and the police communications service to Alice Springs?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, as I have said ad nauseam this week, the Police Commissioner has advised me that the extra police will be here for as long as they are needed. I have not been advised of any withdrawal of police. The decision about policing and where police are deployed are issues for the Police Commissioner.
Yes, there have been significant gains made by police over the last few weeks. As I said last night, there was a significant backlog of work and cases that had not been resolved that have now been resolved. Offenders who are known repeat property offenders have been targeted by police. Many of those are now on remand or on bail. I am advised by police that in regard to the spate of break-ins that occurred in January and February there has been a significant cleanup, and people are now facing the courts in remand or on bail. A number of those are repeat offenders and, as a result, the property crime rate has declined very significantly in the last few weeks. The commissioner has told me those extra police will be here as long as they are needed.
In regard to our record of additional police compared to the CLP, since 2003, we have nearly 400 additional police in our police force across the Northern Territory. Four hundred are deployed across the Territory compared to a four year period under the CLP where not one single police officer was recruited anywhere or deployed additional anywhere across the Territory.
I say to people in Alice Springs to be very careful of the promises being made, because the track record of the CLP on policing compared to what has been delivered by the current Northern Territory government is chalk and cheese.
We will continue to invest in our police across the Northern Territory. The Police Commissioner is being very strong in deploying extra mounted patrols. He has made a decision to provide a permanent general duties police dog and handler in Alice Springs. That has gone down very well with police officers I have spoken to this week. Those extra police will be here as long as they are operationally needed. Those decisions are made by the Police Commissioner, not by the Police minister.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, as I have said ad nauseam this week, the Police Commissioner has advised me that the extra police will be here for as long as they are needed. I have not been advised of any withdrawal of police. The decision about policing and where police are deployed are issues for the Police Commissioner.
Yes, there have been significant gains made by police over the last few weeks. As I said last night, there was a significant backlog of work and cases that had not been resolved that have now been resolved. Offenders who are known repeat property offenders have been targeted by police. Many of those are now on remand or on bail. I am advised by police that in regard to the spate of break-ins that occurred in January and February there has been a significant cleanup, and people are now facing the courts in remand or on bail. A number of those are repeat offenders and, as a result, the property crime rate has declined very significantly in the last few weeks. The commissioner has told me those extra police will be here as long as they are needed.
In regard to our record of additional police compared to the CLP, since 2003, we have nearly 400 additional police in our police force across the Northern Territory. Four hundred are deployed across the Territory compared to a four year period under the CLP where not one single police officer was recruited anywhere or deployed additional anywhere across the Territory.
I say to people in Alice Springs to be very careful of the promises being made, because the track record of the CLP on policing compared to what has been delivered by the current Northern Territory government is chalk and cheese.
We will continue to invest in our police across the Northern Territory. The Police Commissioner is being very strong in deploying extra mounted patrols. He has made a decision to provide a permanent general duties police dog and handler in Alice Springs. That has gone down very well with police officers I have spoken to this week. Those extra police will be here as long as they are operationally needed. Those decisions are made by the Police Commissioner, not by the Police minister.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016