The Northern Territory’s Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says he was “as shocked as anybody” by the decision to charge Constable Zachary Rolfe with murder four days after the death of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker.
Commissioner Chalker also “completely rejected” allegations of any political interference regarding the matter.
Mr Walker died after he was shot by Constable Rolfe during an attempted arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu in 2019.
Constable Rolfe was found not guilty of all charges earlier this month.
Speaking for the first time since the day of the verdict, Commissioner Chalker said he had no prior knowledge of the decision to charge Constable Rolfe.
"The matter to charge was a matter between the investigation team and the DPP," he said.
Commissioner Chalker also refuted accusations of a meeting with Chief Minister Michael Gunner and the Director of Public Prosecutions before charges were laid.
"I completely reject any inference that I was in a meeting with the Chief Minister and the Director of Public Prosecutions. It is simply not true. It did not happen," he said.
"What is greatly concerning to me… is that Constable Rolfe unfortunately believes that to be categorically true, and that is deeply sad for me. It is deeply sad for our police force, and it should be deeply sad to the community of Northern Territory.
"Someone created that lie. And he has believed that to be true.
"That is just so deeply disappointing."
Commissioner Chalker said his decision not to answer questions from the media since the verdict was handed down was based on legal advice, to avoid any appearance of interference.
'Significant spike' in police leaving
The NT Police Association has cited issues around Mr Walker's death and Constable Rolfe's subsequent murder charge as one of the reasons behind a rise in officers leaving the force.
"Sadly over the past two years we've seen a significant spike in [the rate of NT Police officers leaving] to essentially three times the national average across the country which is quite concerning, the association's president Paul McCue said.
"The Yuendumu critical incident and the response to that was certainly raised quite regularly as the reason people moved on."
Commissioner Chalker conceded it was likely the charges against Constable Rolfe, as well as COVID-19, could have contributed to more officers leaving.
"No one has told me that point blank, but I would be very surprised if that incident and all the mischief that is apparently circulated around it [hadn't had]... a deep impact on a number of people," he said.
NT Police Minister Nicole Manison said the past two years had been "challenging" for serving police members and some had quit because they simply didn't want to work in the industry any longer.
Ms Manison blamed the pandemic for one of the key reasons for people quitting.
"There have been reasons for police attrition that I think are mostly directly relatable to COVID, to aggressive police recruitment from interstate jurisdictions," she said.
