Property data indicates Alice Springs residents are leaving the crime-hit city en masse and the NT Government is taking the unusual step of deploying a new crack police force to maintain order.
The Alice Springs Territory Security Division (TSD) will soon be a fixture of the Northern Territory’s second largest city, the government announced this week.
Eighteen officers will be incorporated into the unit and will be tasked with providing rapid response to public disorder situations.
The announcement coincides with data from Realestate.com showing there are 284 vacant properties listed for the city of 25,000, more than double what would be considered a “strong market.”
“This is a very high figure,” Lindsay Carey of the Real Estate Institute NT told Alice Springs News.
NT Police Minister Brent Potter said the new Red Center police force will focus on anti-social behavior as the government tries to curb common crime and attract residents to stay.
A new permanent elite police force will be established in Alice Springs to help control the area’s crime wave (pictured, crime in Alice Springs)
Police Minister Brent Potter (R) said this week that the new Red Center police force will focus on anti-social behavior as the government tries to curb common crime.
This new unit joins the 52 elite police officers already operating in Darwin, bringing the total number of officers working in the territory to 70.
“The Territory Labor Government is creating a specialist Territory Security Division in Alice Springs to keep Red Center residents safe and reduce crime and anti-social behaviour,” Mr Potter said.
“We are investing more than ever in the Northern Territory Police, more officers, better technology, more resources and new strategies to keep the territories safe.”
Potter had previously announced in April that funding for the TSD would increase by $16 million year over year.
Dates have not yet been announced for the new police force, but organizing assistant commissioner Janelle Tonkin will be able to choose who will be part of the team.
Alice Spring TSD will also receive four new operational vehicles, the minister added.
Locals had previously told WhatsNew2Day Australia they were living in fear and forced to hide indoors as children as young as five rioted in the streets.
When they called the police, they said, no one answered and when they did they were told the officers were too busy elsewhere to assist.
Locals told WhatsNew2Day Australia they are afraid to go out and police were often too busy to respond (pictured, crime in Alice Springs).
At the moment, elite police have to board a two-hour flight from Darwin to Alice Springs before they can respond to any criminal activity in the Red Center (pictured, crime in Alice Springs).
Police response times in Alice Springs will improve significantly with the new unit, as members previously had to be deployed outside of Darwin in times of crisis.
Because of this, any immediate response was hampered by a two-hour flight that officers had to take before they could reach the scene.
Surrounding Communities like Tennant Creek are also likely to be served by the Alice Spring TSD.
Starting in July, the unit’s main headquarters will be based at Nightcliff Police Station in Darwin.