Meet Tracey Wills

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Meet Tracey Wills. If you ring the Larrakia 1800 PATROLnumber you’ll likely speak to Tracey, or one of her team. It’s been a busy start to the year for the call centre, and we’re calling on the public to help spread the word on what our Patrollers can and can’t do, so our team can stay on track. Thanks for your help!

Our Patrol service is an important support service for the police and ambulance but isn’t a replacement. Each shift our Patrollers work in the parks, on the streets and on the foreshores diffusing anti-social behaviour, stopping violence from escalating, resolving conflict, and keeping people safe in a culturally appropriate way. The difference between Larrakia Patrol and police and ambulance is often misunderstood by people who call our hotline, and we hope the below lists will help people understand when to call Patrol and when to call police and ambulance.

What Patrol CAN do:

• Relocate people on the streets to a safe place such as sobering up shelters, a relatives’ home, hospital, or safe house. If a person doesn’t want to be relocated, we can’t force them.
• Keep people out of the criminal system through early intervention and conflict resolution. Our Patrollers and skilled in maintaining people’s rights and keeping people safe in a culturally respectful way, while avoiding unnecessary police involvement.
• Provide referrals to services in Darwin. Our patrollers are an effective first point of contact to refer people in need to services such as health services, Larrakia Nation outreach programs and legal services.
• Keep the community safe. This has been a huge part of our work since COVID came to Darwin. Talking to people about how to prevent COVID transmission, access to vaccinations and distributing masks and hand sanitiser has been a very important role for Patrollers over the past 18 months.
• Educate people about Larrakia Nation protocols. This is a list of expected behaviours while on Larrakia country, and our Patrollers help to visitors to Darwin to understand our protocols.

What Patrol CAN’T do:

• Force people to relocate or move on. Patrol relocation is always consensual, and at no time can our Patrollersforce a person to be relocated. That is a police matter.
• Offer ambulance services. If a person is hurt, call an ambulance, our officers are not medics.
• Tip out grog. Often our patrollers are asked to tip out alcohol, but they don’t have the power to do this. Only police can do this.

If you have any questions you can ring 1800 PATROL.