Victoria’s shocking number of youth gang arrests in the past year revealed

Police are cracking down on Victoria’s youth crime menace as details around the state’s gangs - and the number of young people in them - are revealed.

Police are cracking down on Victorian youth gangs.

An outlaw core of 371 Victorian youth gang members has been arrested on average three times each in the past year.

The teenagers have been detained by police a total of 1176 times as the statewide Victoria Police Operation Alliance works to combat the youth crime menace.

A total of 2799 charges have been laid against that group.

New police figures have revealed there are 596 youth gang members being monitored in Victoria, 112 of whom are locked up.

The statistics also show the fluid nature of the street gang menace as police work to arrest the worst and drive those involved in a new direction.

Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said Alliance had identified 276 youths as having quit gangs over the past year and ceased offending.

But, in the same period, 188 were identified as joining a gang or being an active person of interest on the fringes.

Although youth robberies have declined by 12 per cent, they remain a significant problem.

Youth offending overall was down by eight per cent in 2021-2022.

There are 43 identified youth gangs in Victoria who, Mr Nugent said, were subject to much greater strategic attention than in times past.

Mr Nugent said detailed intelligence gleaned from social media, street operations and on-the-ground police contact was increasingly putting police at an advantage over the “largely disorganised” gangs.

He said most of their offending was linked to their members’ involvement in inter-gang disputes, the kind of conflict which could have fatal consequences.

“The more people you have involved in a violent offence, the more violent it’s likely to be,” he said.

Although youth robberies have declined by 12 per cent, they remain a significant problem.

Mr Nugent said one of the challenges for police was the increasing mobility of gang members, usually moving in stolen cars via Melbourne’s freeway network.

An example of the gang members’ willingness to travel and inflict extreme violence unfolded over three months.

A total of 225 known gang members were not charged with anything in 2021-2022 and 112 were charged once.

The conflict began in March when a youth was stabbed in Swan St during Moomba celebrations.

In June, a man suffered horrific wounds in a linked machete attack at Springvale in the southeastern suburbs.

Two days later, houses and cars were severely damaged in a burst of suspected revenge attacks at Hampton Park, Noble Park and Dandenong.

Gang crime squad detectives, including members of the VIPER and Echo task forces, this week arrested six teens from the western suburbs of Sunshine and St Albans.

Mr Nugent said police were resolved to incarcerating the worst of the gang members and that there had been 281 arrests resulting in a remand in the past year.

New police figures have revealed there are 596 youth gang members being monitored in Victoria, 112 of whom are locked up.

Disrupting the activities of others was also a major priority, through operations targeting gang members and enforcement of any court-ordered conditions such as curfews.

Officers last week checked 130 people linked to youth gangs in a compliance blitz in the Wyndham, Brimbank and Melton areas.

More than 40 were arrested and 58 breaches of bail conditions identified.

“It’s about creating a hostile environment,” Mr Nugent said.

In some cases, police have moved before violence erupted.

“This intervention will save lives,” he said.

Mr Nugent said trying to turn around those who could be reformed was also crucial and he believed there were increasing signs of success to that end.

A total of 225 known gang members were not charged with anything in 2021-2022 and 112 were charged once.

Mr Nugent said the number of youth offenders had declined by nearly 10 per cent in the past five years.