The demand on Northern Territory police "regularly exceeds" the capabilities of the force, after a 30 per cent increase in overall crime over the last decade, according to Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the name and image of a person who has died, used with the permission of the family.
Giving evidence on Tuesday to the coronial inquest into the police shooting of Kumanjayi Walker, the deputy commissioner said the agency needed around $500 million more in infrastructure to do its job.
"We need in the vicinity of 300 [additional] officers to enable us to meet the demand on our services and provide an effective response to crime and social order right across the Northern Territory," Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said.
"The demand on our service regularly exceeds our capability as we are structured at the moment ... we do at times struggle to respond to everybody."
Deputy Commissioner Smalpage told the court the territory had seen a 30 per cent increase in overall crime over the past 10 years, with a 126 per cent increase in family and domestic violence and 52 per cent increase in unlawful entries.
He said around 65 per cent of all jobs that police responded to were related to domestic and family violence.
"The demand on our services [compared to] the size of our footprint is challenging and difficult," he said.
Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said the force was actively lobbying the government for additional resources, particularly in remote areas where some officers lived and worked in Intervention-era shipping containers.
"We need additional housing so we can place officers in remote locations. It's a difficult and complex problem. We believe in the vicinity of $500 million worth of infrastructure is required," Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said.
The deputy commissioner was also asked about the rate of crime in Alice Springs, which has captured national attention in recent weeks.
He told the coroner that alcohol-related harm was fundamentally a health issue and officers could not "police [their] way out of it".
"There appears to be a correlation… between the cessation of the stronger futures [legislation] and an increase in property crime," he said.
Guns 'integral' to policing in the NT, Smalpage says
Deputy Commissioner Smalpage is the most senior member of NT Police to be called to give evidence to the long-running inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.
Mr Walker died in 2019 after he was shot by Constable Zachary Rolfe during an attempted arrest at the remote community of Yuendumu.
In March last year, Constable Rolfe was acquitted of all criminal charges related to the shooting.
Throughout the inquest, which began in September 2022, coroner Elisabeth Armitage has heard calls for police to stop carrying firearms in remote communities.
Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said the use of AR-15 weapons in Yuendumu around the time Kumanjayi Walker died was inappropriate, but told the inquest Glock pistols were "integral" to effective policing.
"All of our training and experience is that [Glocks] provide a level of security to the community and [police] officers," he said.
"[A situation] could escalate from nothing to everything … we just saw in Queensland a number of police officers murdered on a routine call-out."
The court has previously heard officers carried AR-15 weapons, or "long arms" in Yuendumu both before and after Mr Walker was shot.
Mr Walker was not shot with a long arm weapon, but the court heard one of the officers deployed to Yuendumu to assist with his arrest was carrying one on the night.
Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said long arm weapons were not routinely carried in remote communities and that someone "ought to have intervened" when officers carried them to guard the scene of the shooting on the day after Mr Walker died.
Police tried to 'preserve dignity' of dying man
In a gruelling day in the witness box, the deputy commissioner was also asked about the decisions made by police on the night Mr Walker died.
He criticised the actions of Constable Rolfe and his specialist Immediate Response Team in going looking for Mr Walker around 7pm on November 9, 2019, but stood by the decision made later that evening to keep Mr Walker's family in the dark as his condition worsened after the shooting.
Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said officers would have wanted to "preserve the dignity" of the 19-year-old as he died, when they chose not to allow members of his family to be with him.
He said the body worn camera footage of police attempting to save Mr Walker's life was "highly graphic" and "distressing".
"Having other people present … it wouldn't be allowed in a hospital. I think it was appropriate, I don't think we should have had people there," Deputy Commissioner Smalpage said.
"A loved one would want to be there, but I don't know if it's always appropriate."
He conceded that the 19-year-old's family should have been informed of his death much earlier, noting Mr Walker died around 8:30pm but the community was not told until the next morning.
