The number of full-time equivalent police officer positions has dropped by 35, the NT Police annual report shows, which the union has labelled “astonishing” but offered no criticism of the Police Commissioner for the attrition rate more than doubling and despite a critical vote of no confidence in him by members.

The report, tabled in Parliament this week, showed there were 1607.50 FTE police officer positions in the 2021-22 financial year, against 1641.88 in the 2020-21 financial year – a difference of 34.38 – and 1595.15 in the 2020-19 financial year.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker told Budget Estimates in June that there were 1669 sworn officers in the NT Police force at the end of March.

NTPA senior vice president Lisa Bayliss said in a statement yesterday that “astonishingly” police numbers had declined, which she said should raise red flags for the Fyles Government around the recruitment and retention of police officers in the NT.

“We have 35 less officers, compared with the previous financial year, and what’s more concerning is the fact we have 30 less constables compared with 2020-21,” she said.

“That means, only 12 officers have been added to the NT Police force since the 2019-20 annual report was released. This is further proof attrition is outweighing recruitment.

“While it’s pleasing to see continuous recruitment, and 78 recruit constables listed at the time the report was compiled, clearly not enough is being done by government to support and retain members.”

A more than doubling of the attrition rate under Jamie Chalker

According to NTPA calculations, the attrition rate for the 2020-21 financial year had nearly doubled to 8.51 per cent, up from 4.53 per cent in the 2019-20 financial year, and 4.66 per cent the year before.

Ms Bayliss said the latest annual report showed it had jumped to 10.65 per cent in the most recent financial year. Based on previous NT Independent calculations, it meant on average an officer was leaving the force about every two days.

However, between late May and the middle of September – the most up-to-date NTPA figures available – the NT Independent calculated there were 35 officers leave in 114 days, or one officer leaving every 3.2 days. In roughly the same period the year before, 55 officers left.

Mr Chalker said in a media release on Wednesday that since the beginning of the year, a total of 96 recruits have graduated, with an additional 126 recruits currently undergoing their training at the College.

“When will this government sit up and take notice? Crime is out of control, our police are overworked, understaffed, and exhausted. They don’t feel supported by government and are leaving in droves,” Ms Bayliss said

“This has been further exacerbated by protracted wage negotiations. Pay our police what they deserve or watch them leave.”

Ms Bayliss did not mention Mr Chalker at all, despite an overwhelming 79.7 per cent of respondents to an NTPA survey saying they had no confidence in him.

The results were released in mid-August, with a massive 1044 police officers completing the survey – a total not seen since the pay ballot in 2017 – and the second highest total participation rate in the history of the NTPA. At the time, there was said to be 1608 members who were eligible to participate in the survey.

Mr Chalker’s handling of the 2019 fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker during a bungled arrest, and subsequent murder charge against Constable Zach Rolfe, was given in the survey as the main reason police officers have lost confidence in him.

Another 79.4 per cent said current morale in the NT Police force is “low or very low”, while troubling results showed 92.6 per cent of officers surveyed said they do not believe there are enough police in the NT to do what is asked of them.

Mr Chalker did not respond to questions yesterday about why the number of police was lower this year than last, and what his opinion was of the impact, if any, of the no confidence vote.

On Wednesday, during a rare public appearance, he claimed but provided no evidence, that the police rank-and-file have “dramatically” more confidence in him since “truths” have been revealed at the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker.

He did not specify what “truths” he was talking about, nor why he was talking about the coronial, when previously he had said he was legally limited in what he could say before it was completed.

In late March, a public petition calling for Mr Chalker to be sacked passed more than 9,000 signatures, and while it came with no official power, it stated Mr Chalker must be sacked immediately because “he has, and continues to” bring the NT Police force “into disrepute”.

Police Minister Kate Worden also did not respond to questions about why police numbers had dropped in the last year or about any performance requirements she had imposed on Mr Chalker since the vote of no confidence. At the time of the vote she said the Police Commissioner had the “government’s full support”.

NTPA president Paul McCue has rarely been publicly critical of Mr Chalker since an interview with The Australian in February 2020, where he said Mr Chalker was “out of touch with our troops if he can’t see the irreparable damage the swift charging of Constable Rolfe” had inflicted on police morale.

“Our members are still completely dumbfounded by the hasty decision to charge Constable Rolfe with murder, just days after the critical incident, and before a thorough investigation had ­occurred,” Mr McCue said at the time.

“The NTPA still receives ­numerous calls, daily, from members who are angry, disillusioned, and questioning whether they still want to remain in the NT Police Force …”

He did not criticise Mr Chalker after Constable Rolfe was found not guilty in early March, but after the vote of no confidence he said Mr Chalker had to make changes, and if he did not, his position could become untenable. He did not specify what those changes needed to be, and seemingly he was not asked by the media.

Mr McCue has not publicly said whether he believes Mr Chalker has made any changes in the last three months, but when asked at the NTPA annual conference in August, he conceded the rank-and-file resentment over Constable Rolfe’s charging was “difficult” to fix, and said the Commissioner was “reluctant” to talk about it with the union, when he had met with them for a closed-door meeting.

A break-down of the numbers over the last three years

Below are the FTE police officer position numbers across the last three annual reports broken down by some ranks.

The 2021-22 annual report shows there were 12 commanders in 2019-20 and 2020-21 but this number dropped to eight in this annual report.

There were 34 superintendents in 2020-19, which rose to 35.78 in 2020-21, and again rose to 42.76 in the last financial year.

While there were 77 senior sergeants in 2019-20, which rose to 84 in 2020-21 but was down very slightly to 83.50 in the last financial year.

In 2019-20 there were 851.14 constables, which rose to 864.63 in 2020-21, but dropped in the last financial year to 834.78, with 78 recruit constables added, down from 81 added the year before, but way up from the 1.98 added the year before that.

The Aboriginal community police officer numbers were 76.70 in 2019-20, but dropped to 60.33 the next year and did not increase in the last financial year, although there were four recruits that year, which was down on the ten the year before. There were zero Aboriginal community police officers recruited in 2019-20.

There were 245.53 police auxiliaries in 2019-20, a figure which dropped to 223.79 in 2020-21 and fell again to 198.27 in the last financial year, but there were 70 recruits that year, up from 21.70 the year before, and 23.50 in the 2019-20 financial year.