Youth crime Qld: Kids couch surfing at police stations, as cops call for other agencies to help

Police are babysitting vulnerable kids who are couch surfing in police stations waiting for help, as a high-ranking officer calls for other agencies to step up to allow them to do their real job.

Police are babysitting kids who are couch surfing in police stations until the sun comes up as Queensland’s top youth crime cop says frustrated officers need more help from agencies outside normal business hours.

Youth Crime Command Assistant Commissioner George Marchesini said the level of violence and severity of crimes across Queensland had shocked him, six months into the job.

It comes after The Courier-Mail revealed the number of serious repeat juvenile offenders committing the majority of the state’s crime had increased from 10 per cent to 17 per cent in the past few years – a cohort of about 500 juveniles.

Mr Marchesini said police were working hard to combat youth crime and were often appealing bail decisions, but more work needed to be done to solve the complex issue.

“What’s frustrating for police … it’s around children out on the street committing further offences,” Mr Marchesini said.

Assistant Commissioner George Marchesini, is the New Youth Crime Taskforce Commander. Photo Steve Pohlner

“The frustration is more about what more we can be doing to break that circuit.

“That’s the frustrating bit.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk introduced Mr Marchesini’s role earlier this year among a slew of legislative changes and programs aimed at stemming youth crime and making it more difficult for serious offenders to get bail.

The changes came after the tragic death of North Lakes mother, Emma Lovell, who was stabbed in a home invasion on Boxing Day, and multiple tragic deaths at the hands of youth crime.

But Mr Marchesini said he had spent the past few months speaking with frontline workers in crime-riddled regions, saying a clear message emerged that more work needed to be done at getting “connectivity” at a local level.

He said there was also scope for more help from agencies outside the normal 9am to 5pm working day to help take the pressure off police.

“Without a doubt, but it has to be case-by-case. It’s what’s needed at that time,” Mr Marchesini said.

“There’s definitely improvements we can do with working a bit better, the frontline have been frustrated for a long time.

“In my work in the child protection space, we continually saw examples where children had to basically surf the couch at a police station waiting for services to open at 9am the next morning.

“They’re the sorts of things where you need to have that better response so police can really get back on the street and do what they are meant to be doing, and attending calls for service.”

The Courier-Mail revealed last month the majority of hardcore juveniles were reoffending again within 12 months, with sources saying juveniles were thumbing their nose at laws and any type of rehabilitation.

One of these repeat offenders was a 17-year-old who committed a terrifying carjacking in Bulimba in June, who was then granted bail by a magistrate when he faced court over the attack.

Security camera footage of a car jacking in Harrison Street Bulimba. Mazda driving down the street prior to the attack.

But police appealed his bail when he boasted about it on social media and successfully overturned the Magistrate’s decision – a tool Mr Marchesini said was used by police when they thought there was a danger to the community.

It was also used on the bail decisions of 13 juveniles in Townsville who were all released by a magistrate on the same day, sparking a ramped up response by police to keep the community safe.

“The ones they are appealing … the majority of the Magistrate’s decision has been overturned, so they are picking up the right ones to appeal,” Mr Marchesini said.

“It’s not about wasting the court’s time, it’s about using the tools that we have.

“We certainly have community expectations for serious offenders, but we can’t lose sight that detention is not going to be the long term solution.”

A group of youths roaming the street late at night in Mount Isa. Picture: Liam Kidston

Mr Marchesini was primarily focused on early intervention, saying something as simple as a health check of an at-risk child to pick up any problems could keep them away from crime.

“That’s the sort of thing that when they are missed, they unfortunately entire the system, and by that stage you could almost say shut the gate, but I’ll never say we can give up, we can’t.

In the next six months, Mr Marchesini said he would be scrutinising multiple programs to see if they were having any impact at steering juveniles away from youth crime, including the multi-agency collaboration panels.

The panels, which consist of senior members of police, government agencies and organisations, gather regularly to share information and set out plans on the most serious offenders.

Mr Marchesini said there was “a lot of work” to be done to see how effective these programs were.

“I’m not going to sit here and say it’s turned things around, it’s about evaluating and seeing what we can do better and holding agencies to account at the table.

“The first six months was about implementing … the next 12 months is focusing on where there’s evidence on what’s working and what’s not working, it’s now that point in time to focus on everything and narrow in.”

Originally published as Youth crime Qld: Kids couch surfing at police stations, as cops call for other agencies to help