NT Police flag major restructure for new recruits, cutting two year remote placement
New police recruits could soon be patrolling Darwin streets after top executives flagged major changes to bush stations. Read how it could alter the workforce.
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New police recruits could soon skip a two-year stint in the bush after police executives flag a major restructure to the force.
Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy announced on Tuesday new recruits could be deployed in Darwin, rather than remote stations amid high crime rates.
“Currently every recruit course gets deployed outside of Darwin, so we’ll probably change that,” Mr Murphy said.
“What we’ll probably do is look at future squads being deployed into Darwin.
“Invest in some officers here and make sure we have adequate security and patrols across the year.”
The changes would reverse one of the pillars of his predecessor’s 2020 restructure.
Soon after being appointed to the top job then-Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker announced all recruits would have to spend at least two years in a remote area.
New recruits had to spend time in Katherine, Tennant, Alice Springs or a remote station within their first six years of service.
The 2020 mandatory placements meant NT Police dissolved the ‘Territory Relief Pool’ unit, Darwin-based officers who would be deployed to remote stations for relief rotations.
In 2020 Mr Chalker said by reducing the reliance on fly-in fly-out cops, the police could improve relationships with Aboriginal communities.
Before the recruit placements, the NTPA raised concerns that remote station were understaffed — even unmanned for months — with bush cops unable to take leave as there was no one to relieve them.
However, 10 days after Mr Chalker officially stepped down as Police Commissioner, Mr Murphy announced the potential culling of the remote placement conditions.
However, he said the force would remain “flexible”, saying deployments to the Territory’s 49 regional and remote police stations were an attractive posting to many new recruits.
“Interestingly everyone wants to go to a remote station, and some of the people who want to go there can’t go there,” Mr Murphy said.
Mr Murphy said the latest recruit cohort would send 28 officers to Alice Springs, 13 to Katherine and two to Tennant Creek in June, but he was discussing with the college so future graduating classes would be deployed in Darwin.
Northern Territory Police Association acting President Lisa Bayliss said unintended consequences had been caused by the regional deployment conditions.
Ms Bayliss said the requirement meant the regions were served by “very junior workforces” while Darwin “struggling to get more than one van on the road some nights”.
“The policy of two-years serving remote within the first five years of your career as an NT Police Officer, actually saw an under resourcing in urban and regional areas with the focus on getting recruits out bush,” she said.
Ms Bayliss said the police union supported measures to distribute recruits to Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and Alice Springs.
“(But) probationary officers need guidance and strong leadership in the infancy of their careers,” Ms Bayliss said.
“It’s not ideal to have too many recruits, and not enough remote positions to fill, particularly at two-man stations.
“And it’s certainly not ideal to have probationary constables in Acting Remote Sergeant roles because there is mandatory remote service with such junior members.”
She said at one point, 85 per cent of Katherine police members were on probation.
“Ideally, we’d like to see every remote station with three members, at a minimum,” she said.
“But the reality is, the government hasn’t provided adequate infrastructure and housing for that to occur.”
The latest budget, which was released on Tuesday, announced a $1.8m increase to police spending.
But in March Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage said NT Police needed another 300 officers and $500m in infrastructure funding to meet skyrocketing demand.
Mr Murphy said on Tuesday that with 1660 officers on the ground, “we’ve got more police than ever”.
“The demand environment is still quite high,” he said.
“We can remove resources across the Territory when and if required.”
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Originally published as NT Police flag major restructure for new recruits, cutting two year remote placement
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