The Northern Territory Police Association has attacked government recruitment processes which it says do not even meeting the rate of resignations and retirements.
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Last week's 56 police graduates last week was celebrated by the government and others as a much-needed boost for police in the NT, but the NTPA claims that it has lost 60 members since July last year.
NTPA President Paul McCue said this was the first squad to graduate in almost 12 months.
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"The ad hoc recruitment from this NT Labor government hasn't worked, plain and simple," he said.
"We would have expected to see a squad graduation last December to boost police numbers, particularly in Central Australia, over the busy summer period.
"That didn't happen, and as a result we saw resources pulled from the Top End to deal with a crime spike in Alice Springs.
"The NTPA is calling for a commitment of a consistent and sustained recruitment program, each and every year, for constables, Aboriginal community police officers and auxiliaries to exceed attrition.
"Since July 1st, 2019, close to 60 officers have retired or resigned from the force."
The NT police force has more than 2.5 times the national average of for police per 1000 citizens, but also deals with the highest crime rate of all states and territories and the highest number of police leaving the force.
An NT police spokeswoman defended the training system, saying the attrition rate had dropped and recruitment was improving.
"The NT police force has a ... four-year recruitment process in place," a spokeswoman said.
"Recent amendments to the recruitment plan will see recruit constables graduating in May and December of each year with auxiliaries and ACPO's graduating throughout the year with a further constable squad due to commence by the end of this year.
"At the end of 2018-19 the NTPF attrition rate for NT Police was 4.92 per cent.
"At the end of March 2020, the NTPF attrition rate is currently sitting at 3.49 per cent."
Mr McCue said the perception that recruitment processes were failing was widespread among officers.
"In our 2020 pre-election survey, our members were asked 'do you think the NT government's current police recruitment program is effective'?
"More than 91 per cent of respondents indicated 'no'. We believe that sends a pretty blunt message to the government.
"Our members are currently on the front-line of the COVID-19 outbreak and we need to ensure there are enough officers to undertake those specific roles and responsibilities, as well as perform day to day policing duties."
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