Increase in Alice Springs Police Numbers Planned

A leaked Government memo indicates a planned increase in police numbers in the Territory.

The memo, from a meeting between the Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, and the Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, states the Territory budget 'will significantly expand police services'.

"Alice Springs needs to be at the front of the queue for extra police on the beat,” says Jodeen Carney, Shadow Minister for Justice.

"The Labor Government must deliver at least 20 extra police on the beat in Alice Springs in this budget.

"Paul Henderson has been Police Minister for most of the time Labor has been in office, yet he has repeatedly claimed police resources in Alice Springs are adequate.

"This memo is an admission he has been misleading the people of Alice Springs.

"Now that the Government is planning to increase police resources it's critical that Alice Springs gets its fair share.

"Surging crimes rates and public drinking in our 'dry town' clearly demonstrate that more police are needed.

"We have said for the better part of two years that we need a significant number of extra police in Alice, but the Labor Government has refused to deliver.

"When the dry town legislation was announced in May last year, we said then that it will work only if it enforced properly, and that means more police'.

"Last week, the Alice Springs News revealed there had been fewer than 10 extra police in Alice Springs since 2004, not the 30 the Territory Government claims.

"The Chief Minister and his colleagues have to face up to reality: they are failing Alice Springs.

"They need to be fair dinkum about the problems and provide the police necessary to improve safety in Alice Springs.”

"In the memo the Chief Minister claims the Intervention has had a perverse effect on urban communities. Urban drift has been impacting on the crime rate in Alice Springs for the last few years.”

2008-04-10