Police look behind violent crimes

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Local police intelligence personnel track known regional grievances, according to a spokesman, replying to questions from the Alice Springs News whether initiatives are in place to prevent criminal payback after alleged events such as last Thursday’s in Gregory Terrace.

A 22-year-old man was charged with one count of Acts Intended to Cause Serious Harm. The 27-year-old victim was taken to Adelaide for treatment.

The photo above, with the faces not concealed, appeared in the Australian, a national daily, still available online late this afternoon, and on Facebook.

The police spokesman said: “As part of preparedness and prevention, Alice Springs police [act] to ensure possible flare ups are managed, for example [by considering] court appearances or community source information.

“The management is based on the information or intelligence but will start at direct family / group consultation but can extend to scheduling of meetings or an increase in proactive police patrols.

“As demonstrated on Thursday, when incidents occur involving violence, police swiftly respond to make scenes safe and take people into custody where necessary.

“This isolates and contains the incidents to mitigate their impact on community safety.

“Police then work with local businesses, councils, government and non-government organisations including Aboriginal organisations, and traditional owners to share information on incidents (like Thursday's) and ensure the factors influencing each instance are known and risk managed.

“If parties to incidents are known to each other and the factors influencing the conduct appear isolated in nature then the level of intervention can be scaled accordingly.”