Additional police resources will be present in the Alice Springs CBD area on a rolling 24 hour period following a spate of unlawful entries in Alice Springs at the weekend.
From 6am Friday 22 January to 6am this morning, police received reports of 25 unlawful entries on businesses and residential properties.
Fifteen of these unlawful entries occurred at business in the Alice Springs central business district, where offenders targeted cash and food, and five of the businesses were repeat victims.
A 13-year-old male has been taken into custody this morning by members of Strike Force Viper in relation to an unlawful entry of a beauty salon in the Todd Mall on Saturday night.
Strike Force Viper have carriage of these investigations and are working to identify and locate offenders.
Two female youth were apprehended at the scene of an unlawful entry of a business in the Todd Mall by members from Strike Force Viper. The pair aged 12 and 14-years-old will be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.
Acting Superintendent Alex Brennan said it was a shocking weekend of crime for the community.
"I feel for everyone who was a victim of this senseless type of behaviour, which impacts so many aspects of our community," said A/Supt Brennan
"We understand the feeling of either coming home or waking up to learn you've been a victim of crime, and it's a feeling that sits uneasy with all of us. No one is immune to this type of offending."
"Our members work tirelessly every day to make our community a safer one for everyone, unfortunately there is a minority who continue to conduct this type of activity.
"As of today the mobile police station will be placed in the Todd Mall providing a 24/7 police presence for that area, and additional foot patrols will be conducted in locations recently targeted by offenders.
"We will continue to engage with the other government and non-government agencies to identify at-risk and high-risk youth and refer them to the relevant agencies to prevent future offending."
Police are urging community members to ensure offenders do not have easy access to car keys, which appear to be the primary target of offenders.
"Offenders clearly unlawfully entered nine properties targeting car keys. We cannot stress enough that securing and hiding cars keys actively prevents further offending."
"We also encourage people to keep reporting suspicious behaviour to police first.
"This information is integral in helping police identify trends and behaviour so we can act and put preventative crime measures in place."
