Errors led to NT Police Glocks going missing, FOI documents reveal

A total of 11 NT police guns have gone missing from their armoury, with recording errors to blame.

SIGNIFICANT recording errors by NT Police over “many years” led to a total of 11 Glock service pistols going missing or being “unaccounted for”, documents obtained under freedom of information laws have revealed.

An internal audit conducted last year — which coincided with the arrest of then constable Daniel Keelan who later pleaded guilty to stealing his police issue side-arm — found another two weapons were missing, possibly stolen and a further eight were “unaccounted for”.

“Five members undertook a full search of the armoury building, including all containers, desks, filing cabinets and any other area where a pistol, part of a pistol or ‘Glock’ box could be located,” the audit report reads.

“Two members of (the Territory Response Group) were employed to conduct a search of the roof crawl space. The search did not locate the two missing firearms, either whole or in part. It is highly unlikely that these two firearms are located in the armoury.”

Deputy Commissioner Murray Smallpage said the two missing Glocks were the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation but there was as yet no evidence they had ended up in the hands of criminals.

“Whether we can ever, hand on heart, say that they were destroyed or stolen is not quite clear but we erred on the side of a criminal investigation because I think it’s appropriate having regard to the consequences of someone having a police issue firearm,” he said.

“It’s still ongoing (and) until we know 100 per cent what happened to those firearms it may always remain open.

“I want to reassure the community of the Northern Territory that we (approach) the management of our weapons with the highest concern and any time when we’ve got firearms missing is a grave concern to us.”

NT Police Deputy Commissioner Murray Smallpage.

Mr Smallpage said as the eight other unaccounted for pistols were listed as being stored in the armoury rather than at a police station, it was “highly probable that they’ve been destroyed and it’s just an administrative, paperwork failure”.

“I think the processes were shoddy,” he said.

“The fact remains we’re very, very unhappy with that finding and we’re taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The review was sparked after a previous 2019 audit found a “large number” of firearms could not be unaccounted for following “noncompliance with and interference in, the audit process”.

But Mr Smallpage said this was likely due to a lack of prior consultation with officers in busy police stations where some of the guns are stored.

“They’re in a locked cabinet, so if you go and you don’t know they’re springing the audit on you, you can’t see what’s in the cabinet,” he said.

“They were unaccounted for, they’ve since been accounted for because we then opened them up and we looked.

“It took two further heavy handed instructions, I suppose, from the executive to say ‘No, no, we actually want to physically sight it, regardless of how busy you are’.”

The recent audits “found similar issues” to a previous audit conducted back in 2005 but Mr Smallpage said the weapons would now be the subject of an annual review.