QLD’s assistant police commissioner addresses youth crime

A top Queensland cop has refuted claims the state’s youth crime crisis is deepening, blaming a small number of repeat offenders for the majority crimes committed.

A top Queensland cop has refuted claims the state’s youth crime crisis is deepening, stating repeat offenders were largely to blame.

QPS Assistant Commissioner Cheryl Scanlon spoke to Sunrise this morning and defended the state’s stance on youth crime.

Yesterday, a group of teenage girls stole a ute from a football coach in Brisbane’s north and livestreamed their antics on social media. They remain at large.

Ms Scanlon said there had not been a recent spike in youth crime, despite the media’s recent inert focus on dangerous and brazen incidents.

“The Youth Justice Task Force was set up over 12 months ago and we have done some work with legislative changes here in Queensland around serious repeat offenders,” she said.

Ms Scanlon said the task force had entered another phase, working with a group of less than 400 young people who cause between 46 to 48 per cent of the youth crimes in Queensland.

When questioned why more young offenders had not been equipped with electronic GPS tracking devices, Ms Scanlon said a small trial had occurred.

“Queensland were given a small trial, to trial GPS electronic monitoring on 16 and 17 year olds,” she said.

“It has been applied to some young people, that was a limited 12 month trial which will be examined as time progresses but I have been very pleased with that.

“There are other things we need to do around dealing with the young people and their families.”

Ms Scanlon said the current phase of the task force targeted the root causes of crime.

“That is a whole raft of other issues that these less than 400 are challenged by,” she said.

“That can be anything from drug and alcohol abuse to domestic violence in the home, disengagement from school, issues around disability.

“There is a strong focus now across government on that less than 400 people.”