Northern Territory police will explore the installation of cameras in the cages of their vehicles after a 23-year-old man died after self-harming while being transported to a Darwin hospital.
Officers had attended the scene of a car accident in Parap on Friday and the Darwin man was placed under arrest. He was not believed to be injured in the crash but required medical clearance before questioning and police sought to take him to hospital.
Guardian Australia understands he self-harmed while in the back cage of the police vehicle during the journey.
He died of his injuries on Monday, and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
Earlier this month the coroner recommended police increase visibility in vehicle cages after the death in custody of a 53-year-old man.
Coroner Greg Cavanagh found there were impediments to police ensuring safety when using the police van, noting that observation into the cage was “not so easy”.
“The evidence was that it is most difficult to observe people in the cage,” he wrote. “Even from the back seat it is almost impossible to see the floor area towards the front of the cage.”
Cavanagh said he found it “difficult to accept” that police weren’t able to overcome these difficulties given improvements in camera technology. He recommended police give “serious consideration to installing a mechanism to provide police officers visibility into the cage area of the police vans while transporting persons.”
The police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, said on Tuesday the force took the recommendations “very seriously” and would be trailing new technologies and potentially new cage designs. He did not give a timeframe.
It was the second death in custody in Darwin in less than a week. Police are appealing to members of the public to come forward with information about an incident on Vesteys beach on Friday. Three people have been charged with assault of a 45-year-old man who appeared to “suffer a medical incident” while being taken into protective custody.
“The conduct of the people arrested cannot, at this stage, be shown as having contributed to the death of the 45-year-old male,” said Det Supt Travis Wurst.
Police administered CPR on the man until paramedics arrived, but he later died. A report is now being prepared for the coroner.
A 42-year-old male appeared before court on Tuesday, charged with aggravated assault. Two women, aged 44 and 49, will appear at a later date.
Police are also seeking information over the death of a woman in Nightcliff in Darwin’s northern suburbs.
The 41-year-old Indigenous woman was found by police near a playground last week after a member of the public alerted them. The woman died from injuries sustained during a suspected assault, but which were also consistent with a fall.
Police are calling for anyone who saw the woman in the area before her death, or any incident between 3pm and 5.30pm on Monday 12 September.
“Initial investigations have determined the woman was in the company of a group of people during the course of the afternoon before she was found by police,” said Det Acting Sen Sgt Tony Henrys.
Police have identified some members of the group but have not yet been able to contact anyone.
