00:00He might be new to this role of police commissioner of the Northern Territory, but Mardin Dole
00:06certainly isn't a new face to police officers or the government up here in the NT.
00:11He's been a police officer here for nearly 30 years, is currently the deputy commissioner
00:15of the police and for the past seven months since former commissioner Michael Murphy was
00:19sacked he's actually been acting in that role of police commissioner.
00:23Now it's interesting to note he's also the first police commissioner from Alice Springs.
00:28Plenty of fanfare was made about his status as a Central Australian during the announcement
00:32of his appointment this morning.
00:33The announcement was made from Alice Springs and used as something of a segue to talk about
00:38the heavy policing measures which would be implemented in Central Australia later this year.
00:43Now while the government will certainly be happy to see stability in this space, it's important
00:47to note that this has been anything but a stable position over the past couple of years.
00:52In fact Mardin Dole is the 15th Northern Territory police commissioner and he's also the third
00:56police officer to hold this role in just the past three years.
01:00Territorians will remember we had former police commissioner Jamie Chalker resign in April
01:04of 2023 amid growing concerns about crime in the community.
01:08And former police commissioner Michael Murphy, as mentioned, was actually sacked after an anti-corruption
01:13investigation found that he had helped friends fulfil top roles in the Northern Territory
01:17police force in April this year.
01:20It's largely because of the way in which Murphy was dismissed that it's taken so long for Mardin Dole
01:24to be appointed.
01:26Now after Michael Murphy was sacked, the government commissioned former Tasmanian Chief Justice
01:30Alan Blow to undertake an external review of these high ranking appointments in the Northern
01:36Territory police force.
01:37Now the findings of that review were handed down just last week and Alan Blow essentially
01:42found that everyone appointed to those upper echelons of the Northern Territory police force
01:47had the qualifications and had the experience in order to fulfil the roles appropriately.
01:52He did find that there was a significant body of opinion that those promotions and the appointments
01:56made during that time were influenced by favouritism and bias and that at the end of the day he
02:01had no way of determining if the appointments or those people appointed were the best people
02:05for the role.
02:06Now that report made six key recommendations.
02:08Here's what Chief Minister Leah Finocchiaro had to say about that this morning.
02:12We want this to be a line in the sand.
02:14We know things can be better and they will be better and Commissioner Dole has absolutely
02:18committed to me that he would deliver those six reforms and we will do them swiftly and so
02:22we will have more to say about that soon.
02:25Commissioner Dole has been appointed on those principles.
02:28This is about merit.
02:29This is about merit for the role and merit for the rank.
02:32This is about having someone who can not only do the job but activate the force to be able
02:37to deliver on the expectations of our community.
02:40We're certainly coming to the pointy end of the year when it comes to crime and community
02:44safety here in the Territory.
02:46Now historically crime and incarceration rates have undulated on a seasonal basis going up
02:51in the summery months or the wet season as it's known up here in Darwin and then down
02:56in the wintry months or the dry season.
02:58Now incarceration rates have veered from that path a bit and just gone exponentially upward
03:03since about 2022 but the same is still very much true for crime and especially so in regions
03:09and regional centres such as Alice Springs.
03:12Here's what soon to be Police Commissioner Martin Dole said about the efforts in Alice Springs
03:16in the upcoming months this morning.
03:18Summer comes around every year and with summer we see a traditional spike in activity and demand
03:24on resourcing for police services.
03:26And can I just assure you we're ready and we're prepared for that.
03:30We're building on the success of Operation Ludlow last year.
03:34We've got the same amount of resources dedicated to Operation Ludlow and that's supplemented
03:38by the Fugitive Task Force, Dog Operations Unit, Mounted Unit and Southern Traffic Operations
03:44that the general public is going to see activity increase from those units in the coming months.
03:49In the coming weeks you're going to see further notifications from the police, further social
03:54media notifications from us and more communication as we move into the busy months that is summer
04:00in Central Australia.
04:01So there's been plenty of reforms in this space over the past year with the CLP coming
04:06to government on a tough on crime platform.
04:08In fact, while Martin Dole has been acting Commissioner, we've also seen the introduction of Prepper
04:12Spray, the introduction of gun carrying police public safety officers in public housing and
04:16on public transport.
04:17And now we're heading into the period of the year where crime does tend to surge especially
04:22in our regional centres.
04:23So it will be relief for the government around this announcement but there's no shortage of challenges
04:28facing Martin Dole in his new role.
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