CCTV black spot in Todd Mall?

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UPDATE, 18 May 2016, 12.36pm: Commander Danny Bacon is investigating the incidents reported by Cr Eli Melky and will address council at its Ordinary Meeting on Monday 30 May.
FURTHER UPDATE, 2.04pm: Police have advised that as yet no formal complaint has been received from the victim in this matter.
UPDATE 19 May 2016 4pm: The victim, who asked not to be named, says he has made a formal complaint, and named the police office to whom he made it. We are seeking comment from the police.
 
By KIERAN FINNANE
 
A man was attacked last Wednesday night in front of a well-lit restaurant in Todd Mall by several youths yet there was no CCTV footage of the incident, according to Councillor Eli Melky.
 
He raised the issue at last night’s Town Council meeting, asking CEO Rex Mooney and Mayor Damien Ryan to raise it as a matter of urgency with senior police this morning. Mr Mooney agreed to do that.
 
Cr Melky was at the scene of the attack and with others went to the man’s assistance. However, the man had already sustained at least one blow to the head from a bottle and suffered concussion.
 
The incident began at about 9pm when the youths tipped over the man’s motorbike, parked in front of the restaurant. When the man tried to intervene, they attacked him. All this was in full view of restaurant patrons: the youths didn’t seem to care, said Cr Melky.
 
He referred to other “brazen” incidents in town, day and night – a lot of shop-lifting and a spate of vandalism to cars on Eastside last weekend.
 
Yesterday afternoon he had seen youths kicking a football to one another across Gregory Terrace, between the Coles and Kmart carparks: “It’s run amok time.”
 
He also asked whether the Youth Patrol service, run by council and Congress, is part of the problem, drawing youths in number to its pick-up point on Todd Street.
 
Council records showed that 744 youths used the service last month, male and female in almost equal numbers.
 
Mr Mooney reiterated council’s request – put formally to both the NT Government and the Opposition – for an after-hours youth drop-in centre, despite the reservations about such a service from the Department of Children and Families.
 

5 COMMENTS

  1. After having my car window smashed for probably the 6th time for two to three years running, six months ago I decided against replacing it.
    Like clockwork I now have a situation whereby every second night my car is rifled through and the contents of the glove box emptied onto seat.
    Sometimes I leave 50 cents in the dash tray just to hope that they won’t keep emptying my glove box and making me clean up their mess.
    Oh well, better than a car full of smashed glass and another bill at the glass repair shop.
    Which brings me to my point, I wonder if the Alice Springs News Online could do some investigative number collecting and see what the glass repair shops have to say about business trends.

  2. If Children’s and Families has reservations about it, it must be a brilliant idea.
    Sounds like The Alice hasn’t been cleaned up, it’s being cleaned up.
    You probably had a few strange fires down there over the weekend. One of our finest exports got relocated down there last Friday, apparently.
    You are welcome to her.

  3. Well, yet another example of the Alice Springs Town Council’s ineptitude and inability to do something correctly the first time.
    Surely, they should have tested the System before it went live.
    Perhaps they are concentrating too much on the Lovegrove Roundabout and justifying their existence rather than looking at some more obvious issues.

  4. Hi “Surprised”: The town council has nothing to do with the CCTV cameras in public places, except the ones around the council building.
    The NT Government installed 43 of them and after a short time of the council doing the monitoring, that function was transferred to the police some years ago.
    Kind regards, Erwin Chlanda, Editor.

  5. Erwin, my apologies to the Alice Springs Town Council on this occasion, though I still feel they are inept as a business.

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