A petition calling for tougher action on youth crime in Katherine is due to be tabled in the Northern Territory parliament this week as residents report an escalation in theft and property damage.
It follows a raft of measures announced by the NT government last week following the death of 20-year-old Declan Laverty, who was killed while working at a drive-through BWS in Darwin on March 19.
Nineteen-year-old Keith Kerinauia — who was on bail for a previous alleged aggravated assault — has been charged with Mr Laverty's murder, as well as aggravated robbery and breach of bail.
Grief over Mr Laverty's death has been felt deeply in Katherine, a regional town about 300 kilometres south-east of Darwin, where residents have been facing their own battle over high crime rates.
About 40 people attended a rally in Katherine on Saturday to coincide with an anti-crime protest attended by about 2,000 people in Darwin.
NT Police data shows commercial break-ins in Katherine jumped by more than 130 per cent in the 12-month period to January this year, while house break-ins rose by more than 80 per cent.
Pauline Dunstan, whose car was recently stolen by a group of children "about 10 or 11 years old", said the problem was hitting retailers hard.
"I've banned young kids [from entering the shop] unless they have an adult now because we've had too much theft, too much aggravation," she said.
"I don't even feel safe walking up to go into Woolies."
In response to ongoing crime, more than 800 Katherine residents have signed a petition urging the NT government to introduce new measures, such as a curfew for children under 12 and for shops to refuse service to unsupervised children during school hours.
The CLP's Member for Katherine Jo Hersey is expected to table the petition in parliament this week.
'People are losing sleep', say residents
While national attention has largely focused on crime in Alice Springs and now in Darwin with the death of Mr Laverty, Katherine residents have told the ABC they feel as if their concerns have been overlooked.
Lana Read, whose florist business has been broken into on at least six occasions, said she believed politicians in Darwin had forgotten about crime in Katherine.
"We're rural, where they don't care," she said.
"They do not care about what goes on in Katherine."
Another business manager, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was so frustrated by crime in Katherine that he was planning to move to New South Wales next year.
"I know people that have been in town for decades who are selling up and leaving because they don't know what to do about the crime," he said.
"The overall picture of town is people are losing sleep because they're worried about what's going to happen overnight when they're sleeping."
Leaders push for new approach
As frustrations among residents continue to simmer, a community-led group in Katherine is developing long-term strategies aimed at preventing criminal behaviour from occurring in the first place.
Known as the Justice Reinvestment Project, the plan involves diverting money from punitive measures to community-led programs targeting the root cause of crime instead.
Christine Butler, a Bandjin woman and long-time Katherine resident, is one of the project's leaders.
While she acknowledged Katherine residents' anger over crime rates, she said the Justice Reinvestment Group was "working hard behind the scenes".
"With government, they have quick knee-jerk reactions, but the process we're going down is going to take a bit of time," she said.
Data shows the Northern Territory has the highest rates of reoffending in Australia.
"Obviously [the current approach] is not working," Ms Butler said.
Rather than sending children into packed and under-resourced youth detention centres, she said some of that money could be better spent on programs aimed at rehabilitation, such as bush camps.
"If we implemented justice reinvestment, perpetrators wouldn't be out on the streets — they would be in some sort of community-led program or centre," she said.
Ms Butler's calls for an evidence-based, culturally-appropriate approach to tackling crime have been echoed by legal experts and Aboriginal leaders.
A new report published by the Smarter Justice for a Safer Territory campaign found 70 per cent of people surveyed preferred more programs to tackle the underlying causes of crime over prison sentences.
NT Legal Aid senior solicitor Harley Dannatt said drilling into the causes of crime and identifying solutions would be "laborious", but would pay off in the long run.
"I think the community should be confident that we do have a really good range of leaders that are coming together," he said.
"The group is not fixed — the invitation is still very much open to the public to take part in this in this process."
Ms Butler said the group was currently designing a governance structure in the hope of receiving part of $80 million of federal funding allocated for community-led justice reinvestment initiatives across Australia.
While some of the funding will go to Alice Springs and Halls Creek, the group in Katherine is still waiting to hear if it will be selected.
Ms Butler said the hard work of community members meant Katherine was in a strong position.
"Canberra is well aware that Katherine is ahead of most communities," she said.
"We've done the homework."
