By Perry Duffin
A youth crime wave terrorising country towns across NSW has been pushed back as police claim violent break-and-enters and car thefts have dropped 40 per cent after a crackdown on hundreds of the worst offenders.
Now the operation will use covert and intelligence tactics usually reserved for serious gangsters to catch young lawbreakers sharing their crimes online for clicks and notoriety.
Police launched Operation Soteria three months ago after surging attacks by armed and wayward young people, with residents being assaulted in break-ins and kept at knifepoint in bed as their valuables and cars were snatched.
Deputy Commissioner Paul Pisanos, commanding Soteria, has just wrapped up the first phase of the operation as 164 people face court.
The operation is moving into a new phase, which will turn to NSW Police’s intelligence command to monitor social media, in real time, to identify crimes before anyone has raised an alarm about a missing car or a broken window.
Facial recognition software and covert surveillance could form part of the mix, sources say, but officers will be hunting for “post-and-boast” crimes livestreamed by youth.
Jason Weinstein of the State Crime Command, who has led the fight against Sydney’s gangland, will oversee the strategy as assistant commissioner of the youth and crime prevention command.
“A lot of the methodologies we are using to deal with emerging and serious youth crime are employed across organised and counterterror crime,” Pisanos told the Herald.
NSW Police have “real-time capability” but it is extraordinarily resource-intensive.
In Queensland, a unit was established in mid-2023 to target youth crime. Soteria will be a test bed to see if a similar model should be established in NSW.
Soteria has so far investigated 255 break-ins and the theft of 197 cars across the state’s northern and western regions.
Of 164 people charged, 119 were under 18. More than one-third of the total were on bail for similar offences at the time of their arrest.
Pisanos said Soteria’s arrests had netted repeat offenders, who had been given bail time and again by the courts and had become “ringleaders” or “influencers” among other vulnerable youngsters.
Those criminal influencers were targeted again over the weekend, when 33 people were charged in a blitz around Dubbo and Walgett as police went door to door to check on bailed young people.
Among them, police allege, was a 15-year-old boy found with the keys to a stolen SUV in his Walgett home.
Police claim he and a second teenager broke into the home of an 89-year-old man, threatened him with a baseball bat and fled in his car, leading police on a high-speed chase.
An hour later, police swooped on the co-accused, a 14-year-old boy.
“We will extend a hand in help to those who want it, but extend police tactics and a set of handcuffs to those who don’t and continue to commit these violent offences,” Pisanos said.
Police arrest a young person in Dubbo over the weekend as part of Operation Soteria.Credit: NSW Police
In late March, Premier Chris Minns extended strict laws making it harder for young people accused of repeat car theft and break-ins to be released on bail.
Magistrates need to have “a high degree of confidence”, under Section 22C of the Bail Act, that an accused child will not commit a serious offence while on bail.
That same month, the youth prison population was at 229 – 10 per cent higher than one year earlier.
“Unfortunately, the fight for us continues when you realise 36 per cent of those charged in the last three months had already been given bail,” Pisanos said.
“We need the courts to use 22C when dealing with young, violent recidivists.”
Crime statistics from the past two decades universally show property crime, including theft, break-in and robbery, is dropping while sexual and domestic violence is rising.
A more granular examination of data from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveals that over the past two years, many regions have recorded localised spikes in break-ins, robberies and car thefts.
Deputy Commissioner Paul Pisanos talks to a child in Dubbo.Credit: NSW Police
Dubbo, Gunnedah, Inverell, Leeton, Lismore, Moree, Narrandera, Narromine, Newcastle, Parkes, Tamworth, Walgett, Tenterfield, Warrumbungle Shire and Coonamble are areas affected, according to the latest BOCSAR data.
But among the personal tragedies and shocking statistics about youth incarceration, there are shoots of hope.
More than 80 young people have been referred to youth action meetings – known as YAMs – under Soteria, which involves police working with government and non-government services to try to turn their lives around.
“I met with a young 13-, 14-year-old boy in Dubbo – he walked himself into the PCYC and wanted to learn boxing,” Pisanos said.
“He’s got a number of family members who are drug addicts, in and out of jail. He wanted to break the cycle.
“But on the flip side, there’s another 13-year-old from Dubbo who is continuing to be given chances by the court, let out on bail, and continues to commit these serious violent offences.”
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