A Major Crash Investigation Section will be established as part of an on-going organisational restructure within the Northern Territory Police
Commander Strategic Planning Command, Anne-Marie Murphy said the restructure was part of the organisation's on-going enhancement to service delivery.
"The creation of a Major Crash Investigation Section was one of the recommendations to come from an external review of motor vehicle crash investigations within the NT Police," Commander Murphy said.
"The establishment of the section aims to achieve a higher standard of investigations and ultimately enhance crash investigation capabilities.
"While the implementation has not yet been finalised and the changes will occur over a period of time, the creation of a Major Crash Investigation Section with Units in Darwin and Alice Springs will see major investigations proceed more efficiently and more effectively.
"We acknowledge the recommendations from recent Coronial inquests that NT Police should put systems in place to improve road fatality investigations. The proposed restructure will assist us in achieving that.
"With increased capacity in the NT Police and increased demand and expectations from the community, we recognise the need to continually revisit our organisation's structure, and one of the areas identified for reform is in the area of serious and fatal crash investigations."
"Additionally by establishing this section we will have the capacity to progress major crash investigations more efficiently and also allow those members assigned to traffic enforcement duties across the NT to have a better directed focus on their core responsibility, which is traffic enforcement."
The changes will not affect our ability to provide our other policing services, for example the traffic enforcement units currently have carriage of fatal vehicle crash investigation files as well as conducting other road safety and enforcement activities. As the implementation takes effect the most serious of investigations will be assigned to the specialist Section.
Initially a Sergeant and up to four Constables will be stationed in the Darwin Major Crash Investigation Unit and one Sergeant and two Constables will be in the Alice Springs Unit. The numbers of members assigned to traffic enforcement will remain as currently exists in both Southern and Central Traffic Operations. The Northern Traffic Operations, which had previously included the Accident Investigation Unit, will be restructured so that the Accident Investigation positions will be allocated to the new Darwin Unit.
The Greater Darwin Traffic Enforcement Section will gain a Senior Sergeant Officer in Charge and retain one Sergeant, eight Constables and the Police Auxiliaries attached to the Speed Camera Unit. As the implementation proceeds, identified vacant positions that do not impact on frontline service delivery such as patrols on the road, will be utilised to establish the other positions.
Other proposed changes to the NT Police structure include the establishment of a Prosecutions Division to provide structure and professional development to police prosecution services. This includes establishing a dedicated Prosecution Unit in Katherine and increasing capacity in both the Alice Springs and Darwin Prosecution Sections.
Media contact:
Theresa Kuilboer
(08)89 223531
