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'Quasi-policing powers' for new armed NT police public safety officers spark concern
A plan to equip Northern Territory transit and public housing safety officers with "quasi-policing powers", including to carry guns on buses, in supermarkets and public housing, has been slammed as a "deeply irresponsible escalation" that could put lives at risk.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of their family.
The newly announced police public safety officers (PPSOs) are set to replace police auxiliaries, transit safety officers and public housing safety officers in the territory next year, as frontline responders to violence and aggression in public places.
Announcing the measure at a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the NT's 56 existing public housing safety and transit safety officers would be retrained under police command to join police auxiliaries in the new expanded PPSO role.
Ms Finocchiaro said the role would enable the government to provide "consistent training, consistent powers and consistent responses to antisocial behaviour in public places".
NT Police Assistant Commissioner James O'Brien said the exact powers PPSOs would have had not yet been finalised, but confirmed they would carry firearms.
"They'll have full police powers whilst also adjusting to include those under the Housing Act and also the Public Transport Act," he said.
He said the change would enable police to better address alcohol-related offending later in the day.
"If we deal with alcohol early all the way throughout our housing estates, all throughout our bus networks and our shopping centres, then we have less crime later in the afternoon," he said.
Under existing laws, public housing safety officers, transit safety officers and police auxiliaries each have different powers.
Transit officers can use oleoresin capsicum spray (pepper spray) and arrest, detain, forcibly remove or direct people to leave, while on buses or around bus stops and stations.
Public housing safety officers can seize alcohol and direct people to leave premises or ban them for up to 12 months if they are engaging in criminal or "antisocial" behaviour.
Under the Police Administration Act, police auxiliaries have the same powers as police, including to carry firearms and tasers, but unlike constables, they generally perform more administrative roles, including as liquor inspectors outside bottle shops.
The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the NT (AMSANT) condemned the decision as a "deeply irresponsible escalation that will place more lives at risk", including people experiencing mental health episodes or living with disabilities.
Chief executive John Paterson said the PPSO role would entail "quasi-policing powers" and called the measure a "kneejerk, ideological response" that could lead to more deaths in custody, following the death of Kumanjayi White.
Mr White, a 24-year-old Warlpiri man who lived with disabilities, died last month after being restrained by two plain-clothed police officers on the floor of an Alice Springs supermarket.
Since the incident, several prominent First Nations organisations have described a breakdown in trust between First Nations people and the NT Police Force.
In relation to the decision to arm more officers, Mr Paterson said: "Are we fast becoming the 51st state of the USA? I mean that's what it's starting to look like — Trumpism in the territory."
"We're calling on the territory government to sit down with the relevant leadership — I'm talking right across all sectors — and let's work out evidence-based, meaningful responses, services and programs that are going to make the territory a place people would want to come and live," he said.
David Villegas, the NT regional secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), which represents transit safety and public housing safety officers, said one of the main reasons those roles existed was to minimise contact between Indigenous people and the police force.
Mr Villegas said none of the officers nor the union had been given prior notice that their roles would change and many were concerned.
"There's been a lot of pushback, a lot of concern, they don't have any information," he said.
'[There's] a lot of frustration, a lot of members telling us they don't want to move to the police."
The NT government has said it will enact a "grandfathering" arrangement for any transit safety or public housing safety officers who do not wish to transition to the PPSO role.
The NT Police Association, which represents police auxiliaries, also said it had received limited detail on the proposal before its announcement.
Both unions said they expected to be briefed by the government in coming weeks.
PPSOs are set to start training in December and begin in their roles in early 2026.
