Northern Territory (NT) police have launched an operation to tackle property offending and assaults in Alice Springs following a week of increased criminal activity.
Operation Thayer, which got underway this week and will run for seven days, saw the deployment of additional police resources across known locations and reported hot spots.
Assistant Commissioner for Northern Territory Police Force Regional and Remote Operations Martin Dole said the Alice Springs community had had enough after a major spike in property offending and anti-social behaviour.
“This past week, we’ve seen a significant increase in property crime, including unlawful entries, stolen motor vehicles and random assaults on members of the public,” he said.
“Our existing members have been addressing these issues rightly so, but with the current situation and the upcoming peak season for the southern region, we’ve re-directed officers to provide a zero-tolerance response.”
Dole added that the closure of COVID-19 border checkpoints means more officers can now be deployed across ongoing and targeted operations heading into the peak tourism season.
This comes after the Mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Paterson, issued a plea for help to around 40 Australian federal ministers, senators, and state MPs over a crime wave that he says has brought the town to breaking point.
In a letter posted on social media in late January, Paterson said he, local business owners, and residents were fed up.
“At local government level, we are restricted in what we can do regarding crime, but this is a call for help. Something needs to change immediately.”
Paterson said he was not exaggerating when he claimed that everyday businesses were being destroyed, cars were stolen and smashed, houses were broken into, people were assaulted while walking to their vehicles, and intruders were climbing into the bedrooms of young children while their parents slept.
“People no longer feel safe in their homes. We’ve had tragic deaths and near misses as a result of crime in our community,” the letter read. “Frankly, we are at the end of the road.”
Among the recipients of the letter were Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, 25 members of the Northern Territory (NT) Parliament, and NT federal Senators Sam McMahon, and Malarndirri McCarthy.
“And this has been a challenge for a very long time and it is clearly seeming to be getting worse, and I just want to commend Matt on his strength and leadership on this,” he said.
“He understands that the solutions to this are not simple. It’s just not a matter of more police or things like this.”
Morrison went on to say that while law enforcement responses are certainly necessary, some of these kids have committed over 30 offences, and a major part of the solution is trying to get hope back into these young people’s lives.
Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, travelled to the NT soon after receiving Paterson’s letter, committing $30 million to leadership programs for young Indigenous people, but Morrison said that’s just a start.
“And I gave Matt a very strong commitment about working with him to do what we can to support what would be a community led effort,” Morrison said.
“We’ve got to find ways of trying to provide some direction and structure and future for these young Australians about where they’re going because at the moment, they’re drifting and they’re causing harm to others and causing harm to themselves. It’s quite heartbreaking.”
The prime minister emphasised that the NT government’s response has to be significant and they need to acknowledge that Alice Springs has a serious problem.
The Epoch Times reached out to the NT government for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Meanwhile, Mayor Paterson told the Epoch Times that he’s been in Canberra this week, meeting ministers to secure funding centred around youth and family empowerment programs, as well as infrastructure.
“We have kids out on the street aged 3 to 16 any night of the week because it’s safer to be there than at home,” he said.
Therefore, ensuring a safe Alice Springs CBD is also a priority, and Paterson has been in discussion with the NT government about enabling CCTV throughout Alice Springs to be monitored there in the town.
Currently, it’s monitored from Darwin, but as a result of the discussions, local network monitoring is expected to be up and running as early as next week.
The NT police seven-day crackdown was welcomed by independent local member for Araluen, Alice Springs, Robyn Lambley, although she said it was slow-coming.
Lambley had previously criticised NT Police Minister Nicole Manison for inaction over the crime crisis in the town, but was pleased Operation Thayer is underway.
“After 2 weeks of parliament calling for action on crime in Alice Springs I am relieved and thankful the Police are taking action,” she said.
“Seven weeks or seven months would have been better but I suppose we have to take what we can get.”
