Kelly police review: $570m pledged to fix funding, culture and systems

Fifteen of 18 key recommendations from a major review into Territory policing will be accepted, as the deficiencies and demands upon the blue line are laid bare.

Police Commissioner Michael Murphy, Chief Minister Eva Lawler and Police Minister Brent Potter handing down the Kelly police review. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Northern Territory Police will receive “unprecedented resources” at a cost of more than half a billion dollars as recommended by a major review into policing funding, culture, and systems.

Led by Vince Kelly APM, the review released on Tuesday made 18 key recommendations, 15 of which have been accepted by the Territory government.

It found demands on police were “unequivocally” at record highs, the force was operating in an “increasingly adverse” environment, and there were significant corporate governance gaps.

In his foreword Mr Kelly said he hoped the completion of the review “draws a line under a decade-long period of organisational and, in many instances, personal trauma for the institution of NTPF and individual members”.

Chief Minister Eva Lawler said things needed to change and the government would work towards implementing most of the recommendations, committing $570m over five years.

“We will invest more in the Northern Territory Police Force than ever before – and that means more officers, better technology, extra equipment and new strategies to improve retention rates for our current serving officers,” she said.

One of the recommendations not accepted by the government was for Police Auxiliary services at bottleshops to become the responsibility of licensees, and all PALIs to be transitioned to constables or frontline services.

Explaining the decision, Ms Lawler said Territorians wanted to see someone “in uniform at bottleshops, rather than a security guard”.

The review found demands on police were “unequivocally” at record highs, the force was operating in an “increasingly adverse” environment, and there were significant corporate governance gaps. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Other recommendations noted but “not accepted at this time” were to transition prisoner transfers to a private provider, and for use of private security services to combat anti-social behaviour to be discontinued.

Reasoning behind the latter recommendation was to allow police as a publicly accountable agency to take responsibility for social order issues.

Ms Lawler said private security still had an important role to play in the NT.

“We have seen an increase in private security in our shopping centres, for example, around our CBD in Darwin – it seems to work, it provides real reassurance to Territorians to have security people there.

“We thought that the time was not right to be able to take away those private security guards.”

Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said it was an “exciting time” for the force, and focus going forward would be to restore the front line, re-examine priorities, and improve wellbeing and retention of officers.

He also said “archaic” disciplinary practices would be updated and more would be done to encourage Indigenous people into the force.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the review was “long overdue” and the government had “failed” police, pointing to consecutive union surveys that showed more than 90 per cent of members did not feel supported by Labor.

An implementation plan for the Kelly review recommendations will be completed by June 24.

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