Some community members in Alice Springs are backing the Northern Territory government's two-week youth curfew in the town, while urging decision-makers to include Aboriginal people and look broadly at the town's long-running issues.

Concern over crime in Alice Springs reached boiling point on Tuesday when violent and chaotic scenes broke out across the CBD.

In response, on Wednesday afternoon, the NT government declared an emergency situation in the town and a two-week youth curfew between 6pm and 6am.

Nearly sixty extra police officers have also been deployed to Alice Springs.

Donna Ah Chee, the chief executive of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress based in Alice Springs, said the emergency situation was a "required circuit breaker" which would lead to "immediate improvement".

"[The situation] has further been caused by many years of lack of investment by successive governments, especially out bush, on the broader social determinants of the unacceptable behaviours we have seen from young people and related adults over recent days," she said.

"We need to ensure that if young people being taken home do not have a safe home to return to, that Family Responsibility Agreements are utilised, coupled with a Targeted Family Support Service. Parents need to take responsibility."

Leo Abbott, an Arrernte man from Alice Springs, said  he believed the curfew was a "good thing", but that he wanted to see consultation between authorities and elders.

"A lot of our cultural leaders have had their feathers pulled right out, that's the biggest thing, so how do we start getting our people to be empowered?" he told ABC Radio Alice Springs.

"Their voice hasn't been there for a while, so it's about empowering people to be able to work with police, work with the town and look at the town's safety.

"It's about doing something positive now, [and] it's been a long time coming. It brings a lot of shame to a lot of community people when they see their families acting this way."

Mr Abbott said solutions needed to be found with cultural leaders.

"And this is why we need to sit down and talk. It's about not condoning violence. It's about education," he said.

Arrernte traditional owner Doris Stuart said visitors to Alice Springs needed to "respect the place".

"If you're coming in here to visit, just respect our place like I would on their place," she said.

"Let people start to look at community safety, a bit more consultation and so on, so everybody in the town can be safe and people can see then, that the town of Alice Springs is working together."

Expert call for longer-term solutions

However, Jared Sharp, the principal legal officer of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), said the curfew was a "knee-jerk" response.

He said the curfew would punish young people, and instead pointed to initiatives such as community courts and Indigenous justice groups as long-term solutions.

"These are the types of initiatives that are needed that have cultural integrity at their heart," he said.

"That's what's needed in the Northern Territory, not more police and law and order responses which are just going to be punitive and heavy-handed and are just going to see a criminalisation of young people."

Central Australian Youth Link-Up Service founder and NT 2024 Australian of the Year Blair McFarland said the behaviour of children in Alice Springs was a direct result of poor policies from successive governments over decades.

He said the curfew would only serve to sweep those issues "under the carpet" and would act as a "short term fix".

"Particularly bush kids don't feel safe in institutions, you can't put them in a youth hostel and expect them to stay," Mr McFarland said.

"There are 800 kids every night in Alice Springs who are homeless, according to statistics. Where are you going to put those kids?"

Mr McFarland said the curfew would do little to address the underlying reasons children were finding themselves on the street of Alice Springs.

He said a recent curfew in Townsville had only managed to push property crime from the CBD into suburbs.

Curfew 'not solution to everything', chief minister says

NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the youth curfew she had declared in Alice Springs was "but one measure" the government could use to address crime issues, after she flew to the town on Thursday morning.

Ms Lawler said she was in Alice Springs to talk to residents and organisations about the curfew and her government's broader plan for the town.

"The decision yesterday [to introduce a curfew] was made quickly and it was based on sound legal advice," she said.