Logan police say their community engagement programs are “starting to produce results” as youth crime in the city drops.
Police are hoping to tackle youth crime “from every angle”, using initiatives like the Youth Co-Responder Team, PCYC and school-based police officers to keep young people from offending.
In the past three months, youth crime in Logan has dropped by 25 per cent, with police arresting 132 young people on just over 500 charges.
Logan District Detective Chief Inspector Mark White said police recently placed a specific focus on serious repeat offenders.
“… who are responsible for a large percentage of the offences committed,” he said.
“During the September quarter, they [the Youth Co-Responder Team] had over 1500 engagements with young people and their family.
“In one of our programs, in the four months before and four months after, there was a significant reduction in their offending.
Chief Inspector White said out of the 15 participants, only one increased the number of offences they committed.
“Eight of them had actually stopped completely, and the remainder had very minor offending during that time – so our programs are effective.”
He said youth crime was a complex issue to deal with.
In the July-September quarter, local police recorded 604 offences involving young offenders – down from 810 in the three-month period prior.
The number of individual youth offenders decreased from 336 to 282.
“Every day and night detectives are targeting those serious repeat offenders, and these numbers demonstrate that what we’re doing is starting to work,” he White said.
“We are implementing a wraparound response – making arrests and conducting proactive patrols to disrupt offenders, and then engaging our partner agencies to ensure young people can be supported.
“While offence numbers fluctuate and the impact of new initiatives will need time to take effect, we want the community to know police are out there doing all we can to keep them safe.”
The Logan District Crime Reduction team consists of investigators from the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) and the Child Protection Investigation Unit (CPIU) investigating property crime offences such as car thefts and burglaries.
The CPIU detectives within the Crime Reduction Unit have primary responsibility for youth offenders and specifically focus on serious repeat offenders.
The Youth Co-Responder Team and frontline officers maintain bail compliance checks.
In the last quarter, Logan recorded a 25 per cent decrease in offences committed by young people on bail.
