TENNANT Creek has become a town where its residents and business people are becoming increasingly angered and live in fear from a wave of vandalism and attacks by out-of-control youths who roam the streets each night

To top of it off, trucking companies are warning their drivers to not fuel up in town because of the escalating crime and damage to their vehicles.

The latest victims are the long-suffering Tennant Creek IGA’s Relief Supermarket and 24-hour BP Complex.

The premises are now boarded up after a group of about 20 youths harassed staff throughout Saturday night and into Sunday morning, stole items and fled.

While the group of unruly kids were causing havoc inside the service station, another group of underage thugs broke a window at the relief supermarket and stole food. 

The kids were thwarted in their grab for cash when they found the tills empty.

The attacks continued Monday night – the youths returned to steal goods from the BP Complex, threatened staff with weapons and demanded money from the till. They also damaged a staff vehicle, stole fuel, spilled fuel outside and threatened arson.

This particularly is frightening, considering the original IGA Supermarket was burned down by three youths back in July!

The Board of Tennant Creek Supermarket and BP Service Station held a crisis meeting on Wednesday.

The Board expressed its concern at the escalating level of youth crime at the premises and is calling on a whole-of-government and community effort to curb the problem to help the safety and reputation of Tennant Creek.

A spokesperson from the Board said youth crime had increased in frequency and severity over the last few months.

“We are concerned for the safety of our staff, the costs to our business and the impact on our service to the people of Tennant Creek,” he said.

“We are now at the point where staff morale is waning, making it hard to recruit and retain staff.

“The protracted crime wave is also proving costly.

“The Board has approved $20,000 for crime prevention measures, this is in addition to constantly repairing broken windows and damaged vehicles.

“The store has improved external lighting and soon we will install crim-mesh across the windows.”

He said in addition to July’s arson attack, in the year to October they had experienced 17 incidents of vandalism, attempted burglaries, forced entry to our store, smashed windows and damage to delivery trucks and staff vehicles.

“All of these incidents appear to involve youths wandering the streets of Tennant Creek at night,” he said.

“Our observation is that these people are getting younger, they have no fear of authority and are brazen in their activities.

“The BP is a particular target as it is the only 24-hour operation in Tennant Creek.

“The Caltex Service Station no longer operates at night, partly because of the crime.

“While local police have been helpful and generally able to identify the culprits, there have been times when they were unavailable to respond quickly (just like September).

“On their own admission they can only react as incidents occur and as resources allow.

“We have been told truck drivers are being instructed to not stop in Tennant Creek at night because of the danger and a bus being escorted through town by police because it was pelted with rocks.” 

Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services Nicole Manison said the NT Government was working on a raft of new measures like community work order programs, tougher bail and monitoring conditions, targeting ringleaders through new legislation and reinstating Family Responsibility Agreements after they were scrapped by the CLP.

“We’ve invested heavily into tackling crime in Tennant Creek through more police, police auxiliary liquor inspectors (PALIs), more CCTV and more investment in housing, a new child and family centre and youth programs,” she said.

“But we know Tennant Creek still has its issues and we know there is still more work to do.

“Anyone who tells you there is a silver bullet to tackling crime is lying to you. This takes hard work.”

A spokesperson for Minister Manison said the youth curfew idea mooted at a town meeting last year was not supported by the Territory Government.

“We have spoken with Police before about the use of curfews and the feedback was that they are ineffective in reducing crime,” she said.

“We need to be focusing on the long term solutions like better housing across the Barkly, better investment in education and youth – along with the immediate action, like more police with better resources and strong alcohol reforms – all of which we are doing.”