Police Minister Brent Potter has toured Alice Springs with anti-crime campaigner Darren Clark

An anti-crime campaigner has taken NT’s Police Minister on a tour through the streets of embattled Alice Springs to show him the ‘fear, trauma and anxiety’ locals are facing. What the Minister said the government was doing to combat the issue.

Police Minister Brent Potter accepted an invitation to drive around Alice Springs crime hotspots on Saturday with anti-crime campaigner Darren Clark.

One of the Territory Labor government’s biggest critics for its failure to keep residents and property in Alice Springs safe, Mr Clark invited Mr Potter to Alice Springs for a tour from a local perspective.

Mr Clark sparked national headlines last year with graphic crime vision and victim accounts on his ActionforAlice2020 Facebook page.

Mr Clark’s conversations with Sydney broadcaster Ben Fordham gave a national voice to the plight of Alice Springs residents and business operators, and eventually prompted a whirlwind visit to the town by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who ordered the reinstatement of grog bans.

Mr Clark praised Mr Potter for accepting the invitation for the local tour – but not the Minister’s conclusion that the government’s so-called Summer Plan had been a success.

Mr Clark has been running a daily tally of crime which he believed presents a counter view.

“No way,” he said to Mr Potter’s claim the plan had been successful.

“The age of criminal responsibility went up, and a lot of crime is now not counted.”

Previous scenes from Alice Springs.

For 90-minutes from 8pm on Saturday Mr Potter heard first-hand from Mr Clark what the baker and businessman has been posting about the town for years.

The tour included highlighting “totally inadequate” lighting and high motel fences on Gap Road, businesses hit by crime, crime patterns within the CBD and a drive-past a residence that had been hit by crime earlier in the day.

“[I] told him the fear, trauma and anxiety people live with each day,” Mr Clark wrote on Facebook.

“Its very hard to explain to someone who lives 1500kms away what it is really like, but [I] tried to explain the crimes are of so many different natures – car theft, home invasions, rock throwers.”

NT Police Minister Brent Potter and Alice Springs anti-crime advocate Darren Clarke toured the troubled Red Centre town at the weekend.

He also provided the Minister a backgrounder on the quality of housing in which many troubled youths live and the conditions they are subject too.

Mr Clark urged the government to allow takeaway alcohol outlets to return to regular trading hours – they are currently open five days a week at restricted hours – “because it hasn’t reduced alcohol consumption on a whole”.

After the tour, Mr Potter said the government would help with “solutions led change”.

“Local residents and business owners are the backbone of our communities,” Mr Potter said. “Residents’ advice and feedback for solutions-led change helps inform me as Police Minister, to make strategic decisions that will improve the safety for those living Alice Springs and the greater southern region.”

He singled out two crime KPIs for special note.

“The Territory Labor Government’s Summer Plan has been successful, with a significant 30 per cent reduction in anti-social behaviour and 17 per cent reduction in assaults on the person,” Mr Potter said.

“We recognise that there is always more work to do, and we are committed to reducing crime.”

“Now anti-social behaviour has dropped significantly, police are responding to property crime faster than ever before, and it is our priority to diminish property crime across residences and businesses in the NT.”