Shadow Minister for Territory Families, Joshua Burgoyne, says the Gunner Labor Government must urgently explore additional crime prevention measures in Alice Springs to ease pressure on police and ensure the community’s safety.
“The number one priority of this Government should be keeping Territorians safe. Not just from COVID, but from the crime crisis crippling Alice Springs.
“We are calling on the Gunner Labor Government to implement a trial in Alice Springs CBD, based on the successful City Safe CCTV monitoring program operating in the Queensland city of Ipswich.
“Instead of CCTV operators based in Darwin notifying Alice Springs police of crimes once they have already occurred, real-time local monitoring with a direct line to police would assist in catching offenders committing crimes and act as a crime deterrent.
“This trial would be another tool to help our police tackle bad behaviour.
“Currently, the CCTV network around the Alice Springs CBD is not monitored by operators in Central Australia. It’s all done in Darwin. We need local operators with local knowledge to help address local crime issues.
“We would like to see a trial with real-time monitoring of already installed police and council-owned security cameras by an external provider, based in Alice Springs, which would be able to relay information directly to Alice Springs police.
“At the bare minimum, the Chief Minister and Police Minister must acknowledge the significant impact crime is having on the Alice Springs community due to Labor’s law and order policy failures – then consider additional, immediate, options to tackle crime in our town,” said Mr Burgoyne.
Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, says the one thing the CLP and Labor agree on is there is no silver bullet to combat the NT’s crime crisis.
“The Gunner Government has to stop shouldering police with the burden of its law and order policy failures. Alice Springs can’t continue to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. We need proactive crime prevention measures now.
“The CLP has a plan to address Labor’s crime failures. We will put the right of victims above the rights of offenders, deal with recidivist offending by setting a presumption against bail for both repeat adult and youth offenders, reinstate breach of bail conditions as an offence for youths, establish a purpose-built ‘Sentenced to a Skill’ boot camp for Alice Springs, and return youth justice to Corrections so that Territory Families can focus on its core function – the care and protection of children,” said Mr Yan.
