NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker weighs in on Alice Springs crime
The Territory’s top cop has weighed in on the crime crisis gripping Alice Springs, as new stats reveal a spike in violent crime. Find out what he thinks is to blame.
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NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says a “level-headed” approach to the issues in the town is needed to address Alice Springs’ worst crime crisis in decades.
“A surge of additional law enforcement is not really going to treat the problem,” he told Sky News when asked if he supported an Australian Federal Police presence in the besieged town.
“We’ve already filled the jails.
“We’re hosting remand prisoners in our police watch houses, we’re picking up that load as well.
“There could be a lot more resources on the ground looking at the therapeutic issues.”
Mr Chalker said the recent spike in crime in Alice Springs pointed to an influx of people arriving in the town to consume alcohol.
“It is very clear that there is a significant number of people who descended upon Alice Springs over the Christmas period,” he said.
“What we’ve got to try and get to the front of this is, what is the drawcard of why so many people are descending upon Alice Springs to drink alcohol to the levels that are causing harm which is then contributing further to the youth issues that we’re dealing with at night.
“We did unfortunately see a rise in activity in November which prompted the call to send 45 additional police down to Alice Springs.
Mr Chalker said in eight weeks, police made more 800 arrests in Alice Springs and issued more than 500 infringement notices.
He said there was an influx of people to Alice Springs to drink alcohol.
“The problem is we still have people turning up each and every day in high numbers,” Mr Chalker said.
Mr Chalker welcomed Chief Minister Natasha Fyles and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visits on Tuesday.
288 assaults in 30 days: How crime has spiked in Alice Springs
New data shows the extent of the crisis in Alice Springs as the town struggles in the grips of another crime wave.
Crime statistics, released by NT Police, reveal assaults and property offences in the Central Australian town skyrocketed in the 12 months to December 2022.
From December 1, 2021 to November 30 last year, assaults in the town increased by 43 per cent, domestic violence-related assaults increase by 53 per cent and alcohol-related assaults were up by 54 per cent.
Across the year, assaults jumped from 1849 to 2653, domestic violence-related assaults increased from 1139 to 1751 and alcohol-related assaults were up from 903 to 1396.
In November, the month 45 police officers were deployed to Alice Springs under Operation Drina, launched to tackle anti-social behaviour and associated crime, there were 288 assaults – the highest figure in any month across the year.
The statistics also quantify locals’ concerns over repeated break-ins and vandalism, with property damage in Alice Springs up 59 per cent, commercial break-ins up 55 per cent and break-ins on homes up 22 per cent.
In November alone, there were 86 break-ins on commercial properties and 62 break-ins on homes.
In the same period across the entire NT, assaults increased by just nine per cent, while domestic violence-related assaults and alcohol-related assaults were up 11 per cent and nine per cent.
Motor vehicle thefts increased 22 per cent, with residents regularly posting on social media about cars being stolen and driven erratically through the town.
Commander Daniel Bacon said resources would continue to be deployed to Alice Springs if needed.
He would not comment specifically on the deployment of further police to Alice Springs under Operation Drina but said “early intervention” was needed to address some issues.
“The matter in Alice Springs is not something that we’re going to arrest our way out of,” he said.
He said he was “quite comfortable” with NT Police’s response to the crisis.
Elsewhere, Katherine recorded the highest increase of any crime in the Territory, with sexual assaults up by 142 per cent and commercial break-ins up 133 per cent.
Commander Bacon said Darwin assaults were down 10 per cent, while sexual assaults were down 13 per cent.
He also said domestic violence had reduced across Greater Darwin but police were still responding to more than 30 incidents a night.
“We’re seeing some more significant improvements, particularly in that personal violence space, that domestic violence space, which we see not only as being our most predominant crime type but also one of the underlying issues when you see a lot of youth offenders in that property crime,” Commander Bacon said.
“We as a command are putting a lot of our resource to that.
“It’s about addressing our prime crime type across Darwin … and we are not going to stop until that’s reduced.”
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