Cairns Post ride along with Task Force Guardian officers
Exclusive inside look into the fight against Cairns youth crime through the eyes of Task Force Guardian officers who speak candidly about frustration of the job, the hopelessness of their targets and the sad reality of an emerging criminal generation.
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Taskforce Guardian officers have spoken candidly about the frustration of their job, the hopelessness of their targets and the sad reality of an emerging criminal generation.
Since Taskforce Guardian started in May last year, more than 1300 young people have been arrested on 4300 offences with more than 500 diverted from the youth justice system.
A ninth deployment to Cairns which wrapped up last week targeted recidivist youth offenders to collectively charge 99 people with 301 offences in six days.
The Cairns Post was given an exclusive ride along with Queensland Police Service officers who successfully raided a Bungalow social housing complex to arrest three girls allegedly involved in the break-in of a south Cairns bottle shop.
Detective Senior Constable Renee Pavicic and Senior Constable Clarry Describes explained why so many kids end up on the wrong side of the law and the incredible resources dedicated to tracking and arresting offenders.
On Thursday last week the officers started their day reviewing CCTV vision of a bottle shop run off at the south Cairns suburb of Edmonton. Identifying three teen girls as suspects investigators then linked the trio to an alleged assault and theft of a backpack the following evening.
After hours of piecing together their movements the team is ready to arrest the girls armed with a full list of police allegations.
All they have to do is find them.
Approaching the difficult job with compassion and understanding, the Task Force Guardian team from Brisbane spoke of the importance of building a relationship with the kids and keeping them safe while making an arrest.
“We will try and build a rapport quickly and try to allay any fears they have when they see us walking down the driveway,” Senior Constable Describes said.
“You might get young people that fire up at us but we still maintain and hold our composure, let them fire up as long as they’re not running away and eventually they will calm down and see that we are not going to drag them out.”
The team arrives at Westcourt unit block but parents of one girl say they have not seen her in days, in what officers said was not unusual. But not leaving totally empty-handed officers have a new address to chase up.
Daily, Task Force Guardian deals with child perpetrators who themselves can be the victims of domestic violence, neglect, and abuse and can often suffer foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, language and intellectual impairment and complex trauma.
Taking the time to reach out and make connections the Task Force Guardian officers said it can be disheartening to repeatedly arrest the same kids over and over.
“You can sit down with a child and have a good heart-to-heart and think you have got through and then we might go away and come back two months later and you see their name on the list,” Senior Constable Describes said.
The plain clothes officer said he believed at that moment the kid was genuine in wanting to turn their life around but peer pressure and having no way to escape the criminal spiral meant reoffending was almost inevitable.
“There’s just a big gap, we take whatever action we do, but I don’t think there’s more (support) after that to try and keep them out of the system,” he said.
“There’s no positive role models that are taking an interest in the youth, parents can only do so much and I know we get down on parents a lot of the time and say ‘That’s your child, you’ve raised them in a bad way,’ but sometimes they have tried their best and there are cracks a lot of these children have fallen through.”
The team arrives at Portsmith flat, an address given by parents of the teen suspect but the children are not there ¬ and it’s back in the vehicle to check the next unit block.
Senior Constable Describes said he often asks the kids he was arresting why they broke the law and in a disturbing admission many he said many say “it’s just our generation, it’s what we do”.
Aspiring to be a badass and chasing kudos on social media was a big motivator to commit more crime. Being seen or posting on socials in a stolen luxury vehicles was a major boost to the offender’s street cred, the officers said.
“The likes and followers on social media is a huge motivator for them, and they become really important in that space,” Senior Constable Pavicic said.
“They put a lot of stuff on social media, and it’s a game between them and the police but they don’t understand that they’re putting other people’s lives at risk,” Senior Constable Describes added.
“They put all over social media to their mates and say ‘look, I just got a Porsche’. And all of a sudden, the kingpins of that area, and then everyone else is going, ‘oh, I want to be like them’.”
The officers said teen offenders had little to no idea the often long-term impacts their actions had on their victims and though generally they knew what they were doing was wrong but the juveniles did not care or were not able to link their actions to any consequence for themselves or those traumatised by their home being invaded.
Finally, the Guardian officers arrive at a graffiti covered social housing complex where they finally find the three girls.
They come quietly and are loaded into a paddy wagon before setting off for the Cairns watch house.
It’s taken three officers half a day to arrest three of 99 offenders arrested during the latest Cairns deployment.
The Guardian police officers concede the trio could well be back on the street later that day or be sent to Cleveland Youth Detention Centre to soon be back on the street stealing again.
“A lot of money from the government, a lot of resources and staff is needed to really help out those kids and show them there’s another path,” Senior Constable Describes said.
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