The other side of the youth crime crisis: The young police officers putting their hands up to keep the community safe

Amid the images of juvenile offenders and devastated victims that fill the news, there is another group that is playing a major role in Queensland’s crime story. These are the faces you need to see.

Crime on the Gold Coast is a story of faces. Young faces.

Some of them are hard to scrub from your mind.

I’ll never forget attending the scene of a crash on Nind St in Southport.

It was late at night. There was little traffic. But somehow, without hitting other vehicles, a small white van had crashed violently, skidding down the road on its side, a spray of broken glass littering the black tarmac behind.

Beneath the canopy of a local business Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics were busily working. Finally they lifted the stretcher and above a recently applied neck brace was the scared and almost innocent-looking face of a child.

But of course he wasn’t innocent. He had been the driver of the van, which was stolen.

Scene at Nind St in Southport after a suspected stolen vehicle crashed. Picture: Keith Woods

I also cannot forget the sad and despairing young face of a 13-year-old boy, slumped on the back seat of a police car, fitfully trying to sleep.

Despite his tender age the boy had court dates upcoming, had been in a lot of trouble with the law. But that is not why he was in the back of an unmarked police car that evening.

The officer behind the wheel, a member of the youth justice co-responder team, was bringing him to Southport Station after failed attempts to return him to his parents. Failed, that is, because the parents would not take him.

The boy would wait while officers tried to find him somewhere safe to stay for the night. They couldn’t, and this baby-faced child ended his night in hospital after threatening to take his own life.

The story of crime on the Gold Coast was also seen in the tear-stained faces of the young people who gathered at the funeral service of Dylan McPadden, the victim of a stabbing outside RQ’s Tavern in Robina.

And of course in the kindly face of 26-year-old Dylan himself, which radiated from a big screen at the service. A much-loved son, brother and friend to so many.

These are the stories – and the faces – that stick in this columnist’s mind.

Acting Chief Superintendent Peter Miles (far right) with 11 First Year Constables who have been allocated to the Gold Coast District at Mudgeeraba police station on Monday. Picture: Keith Woods.

There is, however, another side to the ledger. Another kind of young face, bristling with energy and enthusiasm. And ready to add to the crime story on the Gold Coast, but in another way.

On Monday this writer was privileged to meet eleven new First Year Constables as they embarked on their policing journey.

The youngest was just 19, as Acting Chief Superintendent Peter Miles, beaming like a proud father, was keen to point out.

“There are a lot of 2004 and 2005 babies (among police recruits),” he said.

“I take personal note of that because I’ve got a 2004 baby.

“That’s potentially 40 years of good service. We’ve got younger recruits, we’ve got more mature recruits with a bit more life experience. So it will be interesting to see how that pans out.”

First Year Constable Caydenn Louw.

First Year Constable Kaitlyn Panaho.

It’s almost chilling to think those young officers will soon come face-to-face with people of a similar age with less virtuous intent.

Chilling for this writer, that is, but not for the brave young people who, when asked if the youth crime crisis gave them pause for thought about their chosen careers, were unequivocal in their responses.

“No, I think it just fuels the excitement really,” said 27-year-old Caydenn Louw, who previously worked in IT.

“When you make the decision to leave a career that you’ve built and leap across to the service you make it for the right reasons and I think some of the concerns and things have only fuelled the excitement to get out there and hit the ground.

“ … There is that real drive and passion there to give back to the community.”

Asked if she had any second thoughts, Kaitlyn Panaho, just 19, was no less forthright in her response.

“No absolutely not. If anything it’s fuelled that desire to help out more. Obviously there’s a need for us and being able to fill that and help the community is what’s made my passion”.

Young people eager to run towards danger to help keep Gold Coasters like your columnist and his family safe. Doing so knowing the intense risks, as so tragically exposed in the Wieambilla shootings that claimed the lives of officers Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow – two young faces that no one in the Queensland Police Service will ever forget.

We hear so much, in these pages in elsewhere, about that small minority of young people creating havoc in our community. Just hours after the 11 new constables were introduced to the media came a shocking reminder – a 21-year-old stabbed at Hope Island, another young man charged with his murder.

But it is always worth remembering that there are many more young people doing themselves, their families and their communities proud. Young people like the eleven new First Year Constables who began their policing careers at stations across the city this week.

Faces of the crime story on the Gold Coast we should be happy to see.

Follow @keithjwoods