[ad_1]
Retailers in Darwin have warned increasing violent behaviour from locals has caused businesses to bleed money and is driving customers away in droves, with one shop owner being forced to build a ‘panic room’ in his store.
Shop owners in central Darwin’s Smith Street shopping mall have been crying out for help from government and authorities amid a dramatic increase in crime, claiming locals are fighting and threatening customers inside their stores.
Photographer and Darwin city councillor Paul Arnold said the rise in crime had forced him to install a lockable panic room for him and his staff at his CBD gallery – Paul Arnold Gallery.
Darwin CBD Gallery owner Paul Arnold (pictured) has been forced to install a lockable panic room for him and his staff because of increasing anti-social and violent behaviour in the community
‘If the shop gets trashed, the shop gets trashed, and they can watch on CCTV and call police,’ he told the ABC.
Mr Arnold said it had been the ‘worst Christmas’ he’d experienced in his 15 years in the city.
‘People are voting with their feet and not coming into the city,’ he said.
‘The cost to small business is getting out of control.’
Mr Arnold said there had been many meetings between retailers, government staff and police but these had not been effective in addressing the increasing concerns of shop owners.
‘Police need to be keeping our retailers and business owners in the CBD, and patrons, they need to be keeping them safe, and I’m sorry, they’re not,’ he said.
Shop owners in central Darwin’s Smith Street shopping mall have been crying out for help from government and authorities amid a dramatic increase in crime ( stock image of Smith Street shopping mall pictured)
Ashvin Gill, who also owns a business in the mall, said she has had to lock the front door of her store because drunk and violent locals try to force their way in.
‘As the front face of this business, apart from doing my job, I also have to be aware and alert at all times of my own safety as well as my clients, so it can be pretty overwhelming and exhausting,’ she said.
Police crime statistics from Darwin show a dramatic increase in commercial break-ins, up 52 percent, and property damage, up 24.5, percent between 2020 and 2022.
Smith Street Mall shop-owner Ashvin Gill said she has had to lock the front door of her store because drunk and violent locals try to force their way in (stock image of Smith Street Mall pictured)
NT Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Janelle Tonkin told Daily Mail Australia officers were working alongside NT Police Alcohol Policing Operations to ‘identify anti-social behaviour trends and hot spots’ across the greater Darwin and Palmerston regions’.
‘NT Police…are out within the Mall precinct almost every day supporting City Safe Operations staff,’ she said.
‘NT Police continue to actively investigate matters reported and where evidence exists and place offenders before the courts.’
Acting Assistant Commissioner Tonkin urged NT business owners to report crime to police with ‘adequate details’ in order for sufficient follow-up enquires to be made.
She also said police were working with agencies ‘to identify areas of high risk and cohorts of people who are likely to contribute to crime and anti-social behaviour in the CBD’ and ‘address the causes and effect of anti-social behaviour and connect outreach services to those in need or who live rough’.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Janelle Tonkin (pictured) said police were working alongside NT Police Alcohol Policing Operations to ‘identify anti-social behaviour trends and hot spots’ across Darwin
In August last year an NT police union-led survey found low morale and high rates of attrition within the force and led to union president Paul McCue to declare the police force was ‘in complete crisis’ (stock image of NT police)
The Territory’s ongoing uphill battle with crime comes amid a crisis inside the state’s police force.
In August, 2022, an NT Police union-led survey found low morale and high rates of attrition within the force, following multiple police regions requesting a vote of no confidence in the NT Police Commissioner, Mr Jamie Chalker APM.
More than 1,000 NT Police Association members took part in the survey – about 65 per cent of union membership – which found 79.7 percent of surveyed members said they did not have confidence in the Commissioner.
A whopping 92.6 percent of respondents said they did not think there were enough police in the NT to do what was being asked of them, while 79.4 percent rated current morale in the NT Police Force as low or very low.
The results of the survey led to union president Paul McCue to declare the police force was ‘in complete crisis’.
In June, NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles announced a trial of private security guards – known as the Public Order Response Unit – on the streets of Darwin and Palmerston to help with ‘anti-social behaviour’, after a group of residents lobbied the government to address disorderly behaviour.
Ms Fyles also announced money for businesses to increase their security and that the government would pick up a greater percentage of the cost.
The cost of the private security patrols – which the government said were a short-term solution while it addressed the drivers of crime – was estimated at cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the taxpayer.
[ad_2]
Source link
