Porkin Small Goods and Coffee and fellow Nightcliff traders call for end to anti-social behaviour

A Nightcliff business has gone to extreme measures to deter and avoid anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhood. Read how it’s changed the way it trades.

A new Nightcliff business is locking its doors during trading hours thanks to a spike in anti-social behaviour in the Territory.

Porkin Small Goods and Coffee co-owners Manfred Mletsin and Ryan Hamilton said NT Police were “short-staffed”so they had to take the store’s protection into their own hands.

“We’re now locking the door in our trading hours, so customers have to ring a bell to get inside the venue,” Mr Hamilton said.

“That’s just for the safety of our staff.”

Mr Mletsin said the store also engaged Neptune NT Security Services on a trial period to deter anti-social behaviour.

“That particular night, it was kind of chaotic as well, but having him there, it made a difference,” Mr Mletsin said.

“He would just turn people away, people would listen to him.”

NT Police recorded 3069 commercial break-ins between October 2021 and September 2022, up 53.76 per cent since last year.

They recorded 10,163 incidents of property damage in the same period.

Porkin Small Goods and Coffee co-owner Manfred Mletsin is calling for more security at their business in Nightcliff. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Mr Mletsin said the shop had “luckily” only been broken into once since its doors opened on July 1.

“Any other time, it’s just people coming into the shop, trying to steal during the day while we’re open, and it’s not only alcohol, it’s food,” he said.

Mr Mletsin said there was a recent incident where kids were fighting outside the shop.

“Staff actually locked the door because they felt unsafe, and one of those kids decided to smash that window as well, on our door,” he said.

“I know I’m not only speaking on behalf of myself, but other business owners, they’re locking their doors as well in the neighbourhood here.

“There’s quite a few businesses around here and all of us (are) just at the stage where we’re scared.”

Mr Mletsin said the nearby hair salon, massage parlour, and dress shop were also locking their doors during business hours when necessary.

Porkin Small Goods and Coffee co-owners Manfred Mletsin and Ryan Hamilton are calling for more security at their business in Nightcliff. Picture: (A)manda Parkinson

Mr Mletsin said he called for police after a recent fight in the carpark near the shop.

“I’m not even sure if they ever came for that,” he said.

“But I know police have been doing very, very good work as well and helping us out as much as they can, but I know, because it’s a public thing that everybody knows, that there’s not enough police at the moment to attend incidents.”

Mr Hamilton said Porkin Small Goods and Coffee was not “pointing fingers at any government or saying who’s doing what or who’s doing nothing”.

“At the end of the day, we just need to look towards, as a community, try to look where we can fix these problems or if we can help in any way.”

Brennan MLA Marie-Claire Boothby said the impact of a “crime crisis” was that “we have businesses who are packing up and getting ready to leave the Territory”.

“Police in the Territory is the most important thing,” she said.

Ms Boothby said without law and order, the Territory would “fall apart, which is exactly what we’re seeing, which is exactly why we’re seeing businesses shutting up their stores”.

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Originally published as Porkin Small Goods and Coffee and fellow Nightcliff traders call for end to anti-social behaviour