Danial Rochford, Robyn Lambley call for immediate action to tackle Alice Springs crime

Alice Springs residents want action on crime after one terrifying incident in which police were pulled off the streets for their safety. See what leaders in the community are calling for.

Some residents of Alice Springs say crime in the town are at emergency levels.

The Territory Government have ruled out delivering the Territory Response Group to Alice Springs or implement a youth curfew, despite pleas for action to stop a crime wave.

It follows the arrest of five youths on stolen vehicle and dangerous driving charges overnight Tuesday.

Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford said Alice Springs police needed reinforcements to counter the surge in crime.

“Clearly we need additional resources to secure our streets, whether that’s more police, the Tactical Response Group or private security,” Mr Rochford said.

“Our streets have become real life Grand Theft Auto and more needs to be done today to take back control of the streets.”

Danial Rochford said additional resources were needed in Alice Springs to combat the crime emergency.

In addition, Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley repeated a call for a youth curfew to be introduced in the town.

“It is time the NT Labor Government implement a night and day curfew immediately,” she said.

“This would draw a line in the sand and send a strong message to the entire community that this behaviour will not be tolerated.

“Alice Springs has reached a very low point where the criminals have taken over the town

and the good people are being told to stay away — a curfew for young people must be trialled.”

At 10.40pm Tuesday a Toyota Prado was stolen from the ABC-studio carpark on Gap Road before being seen driving dangerously through the CBD.

Officers from Strike Force Viper, Drone Unit, Dog Operations and general duties police were deployed, with police monitoring its movements while driving dangerously.

At 3.30am an additional two Toyota Hilux utes were taken from Kennett Court and were then seen driving dangerously with the Prado.

Buildings were rammed prompting police to evacuate the town centre for the first time.

Police said a tyre deflation device was successfully deployed on the Prado, which finally came to a stop in the Todd River.

Five youths, aged between 11 and 13, were arrested after fleeing the vehicle.

A 13-year-old male was expected to be charged with aggravated unlawful use of a motor vehicle and four others, aged 11, 12, 12 and 13, would be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.

Police Minister Kate Worden said TRG officers would not be deployed and that the full Labor Cabinet would be in Alice Springs from Friday for talks with town leaders.

She said the government’s commitment to Alice Springs was highlighted by its Social Order Response Team and further interventions were being planned.

Police Minister Kate Worden and NT Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy face the media.

“We are working on an intervention which is around care and protection of children around working between Territory families and police in Alice Springs to make sure we can legally have an intervention to take those young people into care and a safe environment and then make some Territory Families interventions,” she said.

“There are some issues that we need to be very careful around removing young children into a space that is not the family home or into the care of one of their family members.

“We’re stepping through that. I have a team of people working on that in Alice Springs and we are focused on making sure that we can have that intervention in the very, very short term.”

Ms Worden said she had not directly received a request to bring in TRG.

“It certainly hasn’t been made directly to me, but Danial (Rochford) is a good voice and that’s why we’ve brought together local voices in Alice Springs to address these issues and we will be touching base with him on Friday,” she said.

Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Murphy said Alice Springs police were working in a “largely reactive environment”.

He said incidents’ of vehicle thefts, domestic violence and anti-social behaviour were high at this time.

He defended the decision to evacuate the CBD.

“The less people in harm’s way the better,” he said.

“It will allow us to co-ordinate our operations a lot safer and it makes sure that people who don’t necessarily need to be in the area aren’t there.”