NT Police commissioner Michael Murphy meets with Alice Springs residents over coffee
The Territory’s top cop has made an appearance in the Red Centre, telling residents to ‘have hope’ and reassuring them police are on the beat in wake of a horror few weeks for the town.
Alice Springs
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Alice Springs residents who are “struggling to sleep” due to crime in the town are being told to “have hope” by the Northern Territory’s top cop, who says extra help is on its way in the form of more patrols and even a helicopter.
On Tuesday morning, Police Commissioner Michael Murphy spoke with numerous residents from the town during “coffee with a cop,” held in the Todd Mall.
Scheduled for an hour, Mr Murphy spoke at length with residents and media, running over the designated time.
Talking to this masthead, he said residents could expect to see more uniformed officers around, with 17 detectives set to put a uniform on.
“While you see a lot of cops walking around who might be in plain clothes, it’s actually more reassuring when you see a uniform and it actually disrupts; like a mere presence of a police officer changes people’s thinking and it’s really important more than ever that you see a cop and that visibility and engagement option,” he said.
Extra patrols were running 24/7 in suburbs, Mr Murphy said, with police using ATV’s, marked vans, and drones in the newly designated policing sectors.
“I’ve actually asked the team to explore the use of a helicopter (on Tuesday) to put a bird in the air for a number of hours, a couple of times a day to provide that aerial support, get some visibility from a height with the drone and directing our resources,” he said.
Flanking Mr Murphy were a number of officers from Alice Springs, who also spoke to the public.
One of them was Southern Commander James Gray-Spence, who spoke with Aboriginal Fabric Gallery owner Robert Smit.
“I’m actually very pleased to hear what he had to say because there’s a lot of things happening that I didn’t know about,” Mr Smit said.
A resident of Alice Springs for 15 years, he said he was losing his business on the Todd Mall.
“I’m 80 per cent down, I can’t renew my lease next year. I’m probably gonna leave this one (the Todd Mall store) and have another one somewhere else, but its not gonna be in the mall anymore because it’s f***ed,” he said.
“Everybody’s fed up and it’s the worst it’s ever been.”
He said the promise of the new bail laws was reassuring, and he believed positive change would come from them.
Another resident, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said they were “struggling to sleep” and constantly asking themselves if they were going to be the next one broken into.
“Every f***ing night I’m stressed,” they said.
Another resident, who also wanted to stay anonymous, said the crime is putting a “stress on the population” and was worried how violent home invasions were becoming.
Their worries come as a two-month old baby alongside her mother were flown to an Adelaide hospital after suffering a skull fracture in an alleged assault last Wednesday.
Police are accusing two youths – aged 16 and 17 – of the crime.
They fronted court on Thursday, where they were placed on remand to appear again in February.
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