Indigenous leaders are calling for long-term solutions to crime in Alice Springs. The first of a three-night curfew passed without incident last night with police making no arrests. Questions are now being asked about the level of preparation for an influx of transient people to the town for events such as the Alice Springs show and whether more could have been done to anticipate problems.
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00:00The quiet streets in the Alice Springs CBD on the first night of the curfew.
00:07For rough sleepers in town, it was another tough winter night.
00:11When the sun goes down, everybody gets cold.
00:15Hartley's in town to visit family.
00:17This is my daughter-in-law, she's married to my son.
00:20He says the street is a better option than overcrowded houses.
00:24When we stop in the house, people ask for money, you know.
00:28Oh, can you buy food? Can you give me money?
00:31Can you give me a loan?
00:35That's what I'm all about.
00:38Major events like the Alice Show and NAIDOC Week
00:41have brought huge numbers into town from outlying communities.
00:45The tension that comes with overcrowding
00:47was identified by the NT's police chief
00:50as one of his reasons for calling this three-day curfew.
00:53One of the main risks is actually here in the CBD when people congregate.
00:57We've got, you know, anywhere up to 5,000 additional people in town.
01:01A lot of them don't have places, safe places to sleep.
01:04So they're in public places, in the river, and they're here.
01:07Local leaders want to know
01:09why this predictable spike in population wasn't planned for.
01:12That should have been pre-empted.
01:14Let's be real, it's that sort of month
01:17and you can have this influx of people from all points of the campus
01:23crowding in, all wanting to be entertained with little or no money.
01:27Sure, there's going to be disaster somewhere.
01:30Police say domestic violence call-outs were down last night
01:33and that people responded well when they were told about the curfew.
01:37Whether more could have been done to prepare for the influx of visitors
01:41is a question being asked by many here today.
01:44As NAIDOC Week events continue in the town,
01:46leaders say it's important to remember
01:48there's more to Alice Springs than curfews and policing.
01:51Ultimately, at the end of the day, there's a lot of love going on around here
01:55that people do like each other, people do get on with each other.
01:59The curfew is set to end after Wednesday night.