POLICE DON’T DESERVE TO COP ABUSE

EVERYONE has experienced a tough day at work. But among those who have the toughest days at work are those on the frontline, working as paramedics, fireys and as police officers.

And, far too often, we hear stories about how the NT’s cops are subject to hideous abuse while simply doing their job upholding the law.

No one will pretend that being a police officer is going to be all sunshine and rainbows, but the latest allegations just underscore the level of danger our thin blue line is put through on a regular basis.

One officer received face wounds while attending a welfare check on Friday, while another incident involved an auxiliary allegedly being spat upon and verbally abused in the Alice Springs police station.

This all occurred on a single evening.

As Paul McCue, from the NT Police Association, has rightfully pointed out, the nature of these assaults is “horrific” and also “all too common”.

McCue has also argued for stronger sentencing for people who commit assaults on frontline workers.

And that is a fair comment – the police do their best to have our backs when we need them, so why shouldn’t we have theirs?

The legislators of the Territory need to sit down and have a serious conversation about how they expect crime to be adequately policed, when those doing the policing are under constant attack.

And it’s not like our officers don’t have options – interstate police forces have been conducting recruitment drives in a bid to find thousands more men and women to police our streets.

It’s little wonder, when interstate jobs are aplenty and the experience in the Territory is so brutal, that our police force has been dogged by reports of attrition.

In the last financial year, at least 90 cops left the NT Police. Some were retirements, but Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker conceded in Estimates that interstate police and the Australian Federal Police are enticing officers across to their teams.

Of course, we have to recognise there’s no silver bullet or quick fix for the generational challenges which have led to the present situation.

It will take time and hard work to fix these problems, but there needs to be a conscious effort from our government to put the safety of our police and frontline workers first.