Today the Minister for Territory Families Dale Wakefield joined Northern Territory Police to launch the start of Operation Cradle in Alice Springs.
Operation Cradle is an action plan between NT Police, Territory Families and youth service providers to work together to reduce youth crime and anti-social behaviour during these school holidays.
A high police presence will be patrolling the known locations and actively identifying and apprehending youth offenders to be brought before the court.
Operation Cradle will complement the Territory Governments comprehensive school holiday program that will keep children and young people off the streets and engaged in educational and fun activities. The Territory-wide school holiday program will be released tomorrow.
The school holiday program will be supported by the Youth Outreach and Reengagement Team (YORET) throughout the Territory. Operating hours for YORET outreach services which were established by the Territory Labor Government in 2017 - will be extended in both Alice Springs and Palmerston. The YORETs will engage with at-risk young people to encourage participation in the school holiday programs.
Operation Cradle will operate alongside the Alice Springs Interagency Case Management Group (ICMG), which was established in October. The ICMG includes staff from Territory Families, NT Police, and the Department of Education.
The ICMGs core focus is to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in Alice Springs by targeting up to 30 high-risk young people and their families, and take action at a case management level to reduce the likelihood of future offending or reoffending.
Operation Cradle begins today and will run until 11 February 2019.
As stated by Minister for Territory Families Dale Wakefield
Every Centralian has the right to feel safe and expect their homes, businesses and property to be secure. This time of the year can see an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour. We have listened to the concerns of people in Alice Springs and we have taken action.
We are keeping our community safe through a comprehensive action plan, which includes the launch of Operation Cradle. This targeted police operation will tackle youth crime and anti-social behaviour over the holiday period.
NT Police, Territory Families, and youth service providers will work together to deter and detect youth crime and ensure that we keep the residents of Alice Springs safe.
Operation Cradle will operate alongside a suite of measures targeting youth crime, which includes the Alice Springs ICMG, and a comprehensive and engaging school holiday activities program to keep young people off the streets.
This is in stark contrast to the chaotic CLP government who failed to invest in police, and failed to implement any plan to fix the alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets. They also cut funding to youth services, which saw a rise in youth crime.
We are listening to Centralians and the Territory Labor Government is doing more than ever to fix the problem in the short-term and invest in long-term measures to put at-risk young people back on track and tackle crime before it happens.
