Arrest comes as a relief for some teens involved in serious crime, police in new specialist youth crime team say

Youths who think they can get away with serious crimes better think again. A new specialist team is watching. And for some teens arrest is actually a relief, police say.

Leading Sen-Constable Tim Forster from Victoria Police is part of a new program dealing with youth crime. Picture: David Caird

You’d think Tim Forster is the last person young crooks behind a wave of serious crimes would want to see. But the leading senior constable says capture often comes as a relief for wayward teens.

“These kids are always in a heightened state because they know at any point they can be arrested,’’ he says. “For some of them it’s a relief — they want to be caught eventually.”

Forster is among dozens of new specialist youth police tasked with the intense supervision — and possible reform — of Victoria’s most prolific young offenders responsible for scores of crimes, including carjackings and home invasions plaguing Melbourne.

Leading Sen-Constable Tim Forster from Victoria Police is part of a new program dealing with youth crime. Picture: David Caird

Some offenders aged just 14 have racked up an astounding 150 criminal charges. Being arrested is often the culmination of weeks of desperate — and increasingly sloppy — efforts to avoid police.

“A young guy that was arrested two months ago had been on a spree for a number of days — stealing cars, picking people up, committing burglaries,’’ Forster says. “He was involved in quite a lengthy car chase across the northern suburbs and was eventually cornered.

“Speaking to him and hearing from him later, he was saying, ‘I knew the police were on to me. At every set of traffic lights I was waiting for them to storm around and rip me out of the car.’

“Eventually he got caught in a dead-end street and the chopper was overhead. You could see him walk out and just surrender.”

Forster, based in Banyule in Melbourne’s northeast, has between eight and 10 youths under his watch at any time. The number fluctuates depending on how many are behind bars.

Drug use, especially ice, is a common driver of offending. Pressure from friends and the thrill of the chase are also motivators.

“A lot of it is the notoriety or just fitting in and being accepted,’’ Forster says. “The higher level or higher harm crime, the more notoriety that they might achieve among their peers.

“But it could be boredom. It could be just the fun. It could just be the excitement of it.

“I’ve heard stories of young people in interviews disclosing to detectives, ‘What 16-year-old wouldn’t want to drive around in an $80,000 car with drugs, picking up women, going to hotel rooms?’

“That’s sort of the snapshot of what some of these kids are doing and the buzz and excitement they get from that with no limits or boundaries.”

Commander Stuart Bateson, of Victoria Police’s Priority Communities Division, says the Youth Specialist Officers program was born in the wake of community concern about crime after the 2016 Moomba riot.

Officers doorknock homes to check if offenders are adhering to bail conditions, such as curfews or attending school, and are involved in special meetings where crooks face victims of their crimes.

The new youth program was introduced after concern about crime in the wake of the 2016 Moomba riot. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A typical problem youth has as many as 10 experts to help them, with expertise ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to education, youth justice, child protection and employment.

“This is about working intensively with young offenders who we know are responsible for not only disproportionately high-harm crimes but also disproportionately the volume of crime,’’ Bateson says. “We think that these types of offences will always exist, but this role is really designed to make sure we’re on top of it as quickly as possible.

“If people reoffend, we’re going to be right there and we know who that is and we know where they are and we’re going to pick them up.”

The majority of the 42 specialist officers involved in the program, which mostly deals with youths aged from 14 to their early 20s, have been recruited.

“If we’re managing to stop these young people from reoffending, we’re stopping a lot of victims getting hurt, a lot of people being scared and indeed we’re stopping a lot of crime being committed,’’ Bateson says. “But primarily it’s about protecting victims and making sure those young offenders know that there are consequences for their actions.

“The hope really is that we will prevent them from doing it in the first place.”

Forster says, “We mean business. I think the biggest thing is holding these kids to account a bit more. There has been a bit of a shift already saying, ‘Oh, the police are following that up now. The police are actually knocking on our door and checking on us — making sure that we’re home between the hours we should be.’

“It’s little results like that that are starting to make an impact.”

Trying to get offenders to turn their lives around has always been a challenge, but the pay-off for the community is huge.

“There is no quick fix,’’ Forster says. “But it’s wrapping these support services around these people to pick them up when they fall because we know they are probably going to fall again and struggle and slide back a few steps.

“Some young people say, ‘I’m doing so well’ and bang, a carload of mates will pull up next to them and then they just jump in a car and next thing the whole thing starts again. It’s like giving up smoking or giving up anything that’s harmful to you — you get dragged back into it.

“We still get frustrated that a young person you work with and do all this stuff with (can) go out and still commit another offence. But you might have reduced it from 50 times now down to 10 offences or something. Even that’s a win in itself.”

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