NSW coronavirus: Riverina police increase effort to keep young people safe online during COVID-19 lockdown
Concerns about young people online during the coronavirus lockdown have prompted police to increase their effort to crack down on offenders on the Child Protection Register.
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Concerns about young people spending more time online due to self-isolation measures to combat the coronavirus have prompted police to increase their efforts to ensure offenders on the Child Protection Register comply with their conditions.
Riverina Police District’s Superintendent Bob Noble today said they conducted 10 compliance checks during the Easter long weekend and found two minor breaches.
Police gave warnings and made the compliance more stringent in relation to those two breaches.
“We’ve gone to the homes of people on the Child Protection Register,” Superintendent Noble said.
“This is obviously very serious work and it’s something we do to protect young people. We’ll be doing a lot more of that in the coming months.”
Superintendent Noble said the increased effort came after “a lot of discussions in the media and the public around risks to young people because they’re spending a lot of time online”.
“We’re redoubling our efforts around people on child protection registers to make sure young people are safe,” he said.
Rise in domestic violence
During the Easter long weekend, police also received 44 reports of domestic violence making it three weekends in a row that police have received more than average.
“That’s fairly concerning. We normally don’t expect to see that many,” Superintendent Noble said.
“Whether that’s directly attributable to the issues around self isolation, we can’t definitively say yet.
“But we’ll apply some analysis to the data over time.
“If we continue to see numbers high going into April and May, there’s probably a strong linkage.”
Police will continue to run their proactive domestic violence compliance operation for the rest of April.
Police also conducted 128 apprehended violence order compliance checks on repeat offenders and victims.
COVID-19 Penalties
Three people were fined $1000 each and two of those are set to face court after police seized weapons, drugs and cash in their car on Saturday.
About 6pm, police were patrolling at Junee where they stopped a car on Harold Street.
On speaking with the occupants — two men, aged 23 and 37, and a 32-year-old woman — police could smell cannabis and started searching the group and the car.
They seized ice, cannabis, $4455 cash, a diary containing a drug price list, and four knives.
The woman was charged with custody of knife in public place, deal with property proceeds of crime, supply prohibited drug and two counts of possess prohibited drug.
She is due to appear at Junee Local Court on July 10.
The older man charged with goods in custody and custody of knife in public place.
Today, Superintendent Noble said there were numerous warnings were also given to people at the weekend.
“Generally people are very mindful of the directions and the risks to health. We hope that continues,” he said.
“We’re a long way away from the end of this journey. We have to be patient with one another. We have to be patient with the government. The policing operation around the COVID-19 event continues.”