Over the long weekend, Northern Territory Police made their presence known at various events in the Top End.
On Saturday night, police attended the Parramatta Eels vs Cowboys NRL game and Summer Sessions music festival. While fans were well behaved at the NRL game, police cannot say the same for some of the attendees at Summer Sessions, Northern Territory Police say.
Eight arrests were made at the musical festival for disorderly behaviour and three people were taken into protective custody. Police also received a report of an assault on the night. All of these incidents were alcohol related. Further to the apprehensions, one person was issued with a notice to appear for drug possession.
Superintendent Craig Laidler said "Police were very disappointed with the behaviour of a number of patrons during and after the event. The behaviour of intoxicated and disorderly people made it difficult for police to manage the event safely."
Between midnight and 4:00am, a further 40 people were arrested and 31 people were taken into protective custody on Mitchell Street.
Outside Darwin, officers from Adelaide River, Batchelor, and Darwin Traffic Operations conducted operations along Litchfield Park Road due to the expected influx of visitors.
The results from the traffic operation were:
- 404 breath tests conducted
- In excess of 850 vehicle speed checks conducted
- 2 arrests for low range and medium range drink driving
- 1 notice to appear issued
- 4 infringement notices issued
- 7 cautions issued
- 83 offences detected with traffic infringement notices to be issued
In addition to the traffic operation, police conducted various high visibility foot and vehicle patrols of water ways, camping grounds and tourist visitor centres.
Despite the heightened police presence, Sergeant Benjamin Higgins of Batchelor Police said it was shocking to see how many people were speeding.
"Police will continue to target poor driving behaviour in rural and remote areas. We will continue to focus on traffic enforcement targeting those who continually put others’ lives at risk on our roads," he said.
In other traffic incidents, a 20-year-old male was allegedly detected travelling at 198 kilometres an hour on the Stuart Highway in Humpty Doo on Sunday. Following that, two males, aged 32 and 33, were apprehended for drink driving two hours apart in the same vehicle by the same police officer.
