Unprecedented violence: Top cop warns bush kids to ‘cut the crap or cop the handcuffs’
One of the state’s top cops says the escalation of violence wreaked by children in the regions is reaching unprecedented levels — and his troops will not rest until the cycle of re-offending is broken.
NSW
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One of the state’s most senior police officers has issued a dire warning for kids in the bush committing violent crimes.
“We are always happy to extend a helping hand, but we are equally as happy to extend a set of handcuffs if young people don’t toe the line and choose the alternatives being offered to them,” Deputy Commissioner Paul Pisanos exclusively told The Saturday Telegraph.
“If they commit violent crimes it’s a privilege to be given bail and we expect them to comply, otherwise we will slap them with a set of handcuffs. We will keep doing so until this cycle of repeat offending is broken once and for all.”
Mr Pisanos said the escalation of violence in country areas was at unprecedented levels and the behaviour was proving fatal.
“This is just as much about protecting the community as it is saving the lives of these kids who are putting their own lives at risk and everyone else’s. It’s got to stop.”
Over the past two weeks The Saturday Telegraph has had a front-seat view of the NSW Police Force sending in the cavalry to bolster troops on the ground trying to stop unruly teens who are causing terror in regional towns.
First stop was Tamworth, where the high-visibility Operation Soteria is already seeing results, followed by Moree where a teen who allegedly forced his way into a home and assaulted a local doctor was locked up on Thursday.
Soteria troops were also in Kempsey, Lismore and Tweed areas over the past two weeks, and other communities across the north and west of the state can expect a visit any day or night over the next three months as the 60-strong team of cops from all sections of the force comes to town.
It’s the calm before the storm in Tamworth.
Twenty of the 30 “ringleaders” known for enticing younger kids out of their beds and into the homes of unsuspecting strangers, finding a thrill in instilling terror, have been out of the game. Off the streets. At least temporarily.
Some are now serving sentences for violent home invasions, others had their bail refused while waiting to face judgment day.
Then there’s the small few who have been identified as key players but have turned a corner. At least for now.
Superintendent Luke Rankin is under no illusion that the relatively quieter streets in the northeastern NSW city will stay this way.
He’s seen the ebbs and flows in Tamworth and in towns and cities just like it.
For the seasoned detective now in charge of Operation Soteria, Tamworth is just one of 10 locations on his puzzle board. His job is to move all of his pieces around to the locations that need the most help.
It’s a moving beast.
Superintendent Rankin is tasked with disrupting the young criminals who seem to have very little regard for authority and less for their terrified victims.
He has the unenviable task of making a lasting difference – and three months in which to do it.
“We have the resources and we bring them to where we need them — and that can change overnight,” he said.
“We have intelligence and we have plans based on intelligence, but if things heat up in another part of the state then we respond.”
Supt Rankin said the success of Soteria would come down to the local police, their intelligence, and their youth workers who have built up relationships with the ringleaders and the kids on the cusp who still have the chance to turn things around.
“It really comes down to police in their local areas. They know the families, they know the kids and they know who they can work with, who they can show there’s another way, how to turn their back on crime,” Supt Rankin says.
“Every area has its specific problems, and needs specific solutions, so it’s no easy task, it changes every day and we are under no illusions.
“If we have to lock kids up, get them off the streets to keep the people in the town safe we will.
“There’s a ripple effect, if towns are copping it, then doctors, nurses, teachers they don’t want to stay, why would they? There’s that ripple effect so we have to really work hard to work with the local communities.”
Police are also monitoring social media in real time, looking out for the boasters who post their crimes, and detectives are gathering intelligence on repeat offenders.
In Tamworth, there’s been success with shutting down the majority of “ringleaders” — but they will be back on the streets when their sentences expire, and young boys and girls will again be faced with the temptations of their peers.
Some will cave and Soteria officers will be waiting, watching.
They’ll hunt down the ones who haven’t learnt their lesson, conducting random bail checks, and visiting the homes of kids they know might be swayed.
If they have to, they’ll bust down doors and arrest any who keep re-offending.
But there’s a very different approach for handling the ones who are on the cusp. The ones their guts tell them just might shun a life of crime.
Inspector Luke Gerard, from the youth command, says just a couple of weeks ago a teen with a history of landing himself in trouble chose not to follow his friends on their late-night hunt for a car to steal.
“This young kid, he had the opportunity to get in this car. We’ve been working with this kid, and he made a decision not to get in and that’s been life-changing for him. Someone died in that car.
“He’s a kid that’s been heavily involved in this kind of thing from a young age, but since we’ve been talking to him he’s put a lot of work in. He knew the person that died and obviously it shook him up.
“Now, will it mean he doesn’t make the wrong decision again? We don’t know, but that’s the kind of work we do, diverting these kids into activities, giving them opportunities and choices.”
Andrena Sandison has been working with at-risk kids in Tamworth for 14 years.
“Some of the young offenders that I used to work with, a lot of their siblings will come through, so it really is about gaining their trust working with them,” the youth officer said.
“It doesn’t happen overnight. I find some of the families, even when I did my general duties rotation, we would turn up and there would be instances where it could be quite hostile, and then someone would recognise me, and it would step down.”
Const Sandison said social media was at the heart of the offending.
“I also think a lot of these crimes can become quite normalised. It’s learned behaviour from siblings, so we try to find as many ways as we can to engage them, to pick them up in the mornings, get them involved in boxing, outdoor games, a lot of the time we are guided by them.
Const Sandison said younger kids “will tend to sit there and talk your ear off” and were often receptive to questions about why they behave the way they do.
“Whereas the young offenders that perhaps have had more engagement with the criminal justice system, they get suss about why you’re asking those questions, they can be more reserved.
“I’ve worked with some young people from primary school age, and then when they are committing offences they will talk to us, I suppose, because they see us on a human level, because we are the ones running the programs, playing touch footy, going into the schools.”
One young offender, for example, who was running amok at night. dressed up for the Book Week event at the youth centre.
“Here he was grinning ear to ear dressed up like a pirate. At the end of the day he’s just a little boy. It’s how we reach them,” Const Sandison
“I think doing this job has got my empathy back, made me more like I was before I joined the police force.”
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