Juvenile justice debate rages as teens wreak havoc on the street
Young offenders are almost three times more likely to break into Cairns homes than adults according to police numbers as alleged teen car thieves leave a trail of destruction in the region.
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JUVENILE offenders are almost three times more likely than adults to break into Cairns homes, according to police numbers, as alleged teen car thieves leave a trail of destruction in Cardwell.
Queensland Police crime stats have revealed in the last 12 months to February this year juvenile offenders racked up 1099 unlawful entry charges compared with 403 offences committed by adults in the same period.
Last week, a notice of motion in the Queensland parliament brought by Opposition police spokesman Dale Last demanded state MPs Craig Crawford, Cynthia Lui and Michael Healy “admit they got it wrong and reverse their opposition to making breach of bail an offence for young criminals”.
READ MORE: TEENS ON TRACK TO HIT CAR THEFT RECORD
Mr Last said the latest figures should be triggering more than just head nods from the local members.
“The people of Cairns and Far North Queensland want to know where the response is to their crisis, because there is absolutely no response from their local members,” Mr Last said.
Cairns juvenile rates of unlawful use of a motor vehicle added up to 760 charges compared to adults charges of 255 in the year to February this year.
“It took my motion in parliament this week for the public to hear from the Member for Cook where she said in parliament, that there were not enough solutions offered to address the issue of youth crime but at the same time failed to call on her Labor mates to do more,” Mr Last said.
“The number one priority of any government should be to ensure the safety of the people. We have heard that time and time again in relation to the Covid pandemic but, when it comes to crime, the victims are ignored and, quite often, the offenders are back on the streets in no time.”
Cairns MP Michael Healy responded to the motion in the chamber by saying “if you think by throwing people and locking them up is going to be the solution, it’s not the solution”.
The call to action was made not a day before alleged car thieves en route from Townsville to Cairns crashed a stolen Ford dual cab ute into a series of parked cars before being dumped.
Alleged car thieves were picked up by another stolen car and continued onto Cairns.
In the last quarter, the Cairns local government area, recorded 323 unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences according to police data.
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Originally published as Juvenile justice debate rages as teens wreak havoc on the street
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