NT Police Force: Martin Dole appointed full-time Deputy Commissioner

Police Commissioner Michael Murphy has almost finished putting his stamp on the organisation, unveiling one of the final pieces in the leadership puzzle. Here’s what it means for the police force.

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy with newly appointed Deputy Commissioner Martin Dole, May 17, 2024. Picture: Alex Treacy

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy’s renewal of the top brass continues apace after revealing on Friday that Assistant Commissioner Martin Dole had been appointed his Deputy Commissioner.

Mr Dole, whose career with NT Police commenced the same year as Mr Murphy’s – 1997 – has served previously in Alice Springs, Yuendumu, Ti Tree, and Darwin.

All bar a decade of his career has been spent in investigative roles, with Mr Dole spending stints in the Crime Intelligence Bureau, Regional Investigations, Sexual Crime Unit, Major Crime Unit, Special Operations Section, Drug Enforcement Unit, and Darwin Major Crash Investigations.

Mr Dole, who was previously acting in the role of Deputy Commissioner, was appointed Assistant Commissioner, Regional and Remote Operations, in December 2021.

He said a key focus would be ensuring the organisation gets the best “bang for buck” out of the extra $90m it has received in the 2024–25 budget, which was unveiled on Tuesday night.

Another priority area would be ensuring frontline officers had adequate support from the leadership.

Newly appointed NT Police Deputy Commissioner Martin Dole. Picture: Alex Treacy

“[I want to] ensure the welfare of our members is looked after and that we’ve got a strong resilient police force moving forward to continue to serve the people of the Northern Territory,” he said.

“I’m really looking forward to investing in the welfare of our members and giving them better tools and better resources to continue to do their job.”

Mr Murphy said appointing his colleague to the role of Deputy Commissioner was one of the final pieces of the puzzle in the process of strengthening the leadership of the police force.

“We’ve got numerous challenges at the moment with policing and we do need to renew and refresh our police executive and rebuild our trust with our workforce,” Mr Murphy said.

“My promotion to commissioner from deputy commissioner allowed me the opportunity to go back to one deputy and create two more assistant commissioners focusing on really important community safety aspects such as domestic violence, which is a national discussion at the moment.”

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy with newly appointed Deputy Commissioner Martin Dole, May 17, 2024. Picture: Alex Treacy

NT Police’s assistant commissioners are now Michael White (domestic violence and youth), Travis Wurst (crime), Hege Burns (acting, people and wellbeing), Matt Hollamby (greater Darwin, road policing and support), Janelle Tonkin (Territory Community Safety Coordination Centre) and Peter Kennon (on leave currently, will be deployed to Alice Springs to take on regional and remote policing).

Mr Murphy said the next step in the renewal was to focus on the level below assistant commissioners – commanders.

He said there were “up to five” vacancies at the commander level, and the force had a “really healthy pool of applicants, I think we’ve got 16”.

The aspiring commanders will be recommended by a panel chaired by Mr Dole.

Mr Murphy said he hoped the new organisational structure and lines of accountability would help draw a line under a tumultuous period for the force, which has been marred by allegations of institutional racism.

“We can’t unmute the past,” he said.

“We have to learn from our history, but we have to move forward in a really positive way

“We do have to change our culture and what’s accepted and what’s not accepted and so it is it’s a line in the sand.”

Originally published as NT Police Force: Martin Dole appointed full-time Deputy Commissioner