More police in communities

The Australian Government is providing more police for remote communities as part of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). The police are living and working in communities, or visiting often.

The extra police are working to improve community safety and enforce the law, helping to prevent violence and anti-social behaviour. Police are also helping to enforce the bans on alcohol and prohibited material.

Since the intervention was announced by the former Australian Government in June 2007, 18 temporary police stations have been established across the Northern Territory. Their locations range from Alpurrurulam on the Queensland border in the east, Mutitjulu to the south, Yarralin adjacent to the Western Australian border, Minjilang on Croker Island in the north and Numbulwar on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The stations are being provided with all the equipment necessary to carry out policing functions in remote Australia.

The Australian Government has sent officers from the Australian Federal Police and most State Governments have also committed temporary police resources. The extra police officers are working under Northern Territory Police command, and have Northern Territory Police powers.

Since June 2007, some 80 police from the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria have been seconded to the Northern Territory Police to work in the new stations.

Currently more than 50 additional police are working in remote communities that previously did not have a permanent policing presence.

As State police are withdrawn they are being replaced by officers of the AFP in line with an Australian Government commitment for this and the next financial year to provide an extra 66 AFP officers to work in the Northern Territory.

In addition to their normal duties in preventing and detecting crime, the police are placing high priority on community-engagement activities.

These activities range from coaching the local AFL team, providing a monitored swimming pool, to teaching children about protective behaviours. The aim is to have community members, and children in particular, engaging with police in non-threatening activities where they learn to treat police officers as friends and can confidently communicate with police about all aspects of their lives and activities.

The Indigenous Violence and Child Abuse Intelligence Taskforce, part of the Australian Crime Commission, is conducting targeted intelligence operations within the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal communities and more widely across Australia.