Inside Geelong’s crime reduction team targeting high-risk offenders

A new team of police are keeping a close eye on some of the worst offenders in the region and supporting them to stop the cycle of crime.

Sergeant Lauren O’Connor, who leads Geelong’s crime reduction team, and Senior Sergeant Paul O’Connell. Picture: Alan Barber

A potential youth crime gang was disbanded and the teens put on a better path by a team of Geelong police targeting high-risk offenders.

Officers from its crime reduction team (CRT) noticed a rise in youth offending in a southern suburb of Geelong and engaged with five teenagers in the group to help steer them away from criminal offending.

This included a 15-year-old who police had arrested twice in a matter of days before he was connected with a CRT officer who helped him get back to school and find his interest in basketball.

But the teenager was later arrested for an armed robbery and remanded to Melbourne Youth Justice Centre in Parkville.

While incarcerated, he told prison staff the worst part of being behind bars was having “disappointed and let down” his CRT officer.

Since his release, his offending has stopped with police and his family supporting him to return to school.

Other youths in the group were also helped by CRT officers to re-engage with school and sport.

Geelong’s CRT, which was established on July 1, consists of six police officers who actively monitor 22 of the region’s worst offenders — about 60 per cent of them children.

The latest crime data shows a spike in youth offending in Greater Geelong with 1104 alleged offences committed by 10 to 17 year olds in the 12 months to June.

This is an increase from 877 offences in the previous year.

Sergeant Lauren O’Connor, who leads the team, said the initiative was about introducing people of interest (POI) to services to help stop their criminal offending.

Sergeant Lauren O’Connor. Picture: Alan Barber

“It’s not only the POIs that we are engaging with but their families and we have a positive influence on siblings, parents and school friends,” she said.

Sergeant O’Connor said most of the offenders were receptive to taking the help being offered to them.

“Especially to those who have been in a cycle (of crime), it just takes one person to turn around and say ‘can we help you’ and that might change the course of where they are going,” she said.

The team has made almost 300 referrals for offenders to access support services such as drug and alcohol treatment, healthcare, employment and education.

This equates to five referrals per day.

In the first two months alone, CRTs in Melbourne and Geelong engaged almost 1300 times with 360 high-risk offenders.

This included visiting them at home and attending appointments at support services with them.

The force hopes to roll out the initiative statewide in the coming months.

Originally published as Inside Geelong’s crime reduction team targeting high-risk offenders