Brazen teen thugs to face hi-tech surveillance crackdown

A no-nonsense police taskforce has a new strategy to hunt down teenage thugs who “taunt police” by boasting about violent home invasions and carjackings online.

Police cracking down on crime in regional NSW have seen a 40 per cent decrease in violent home invasion and car thefts committed by unruly teens in the past three months.

The startling statistics are the result of Operation Soteria - the all-in assault on teens as young as 10 posting and boasting their violent crimes,

News.com.au can reveal officers flooded hotspots including Dubbo in the west and hunted down known young offenders all the way to Tweed Heads in the north of the state in the last seven days.

The boss of the crackdown, Deputy Commissioner Paul Pisanos, made no apologies for the hardline stance, revealing the social media accounts of young thugs terrorising families will come under intense scrutiny in “real time” as police continue to find new ways to crack down on young crooks flouting the law.

Police were out in force across regional NSW, including Tweed Heads. Picture: NSW Police

It was a long night for those who caught the attention of cops. Picture: NSW Police

In the next phase in the assault on violent neighbourhood crimes, police experts are comparing high-tech surveillance methods used in other jurisdictions to find the most appropriate fit in their battle to get violent teen criminals under control.

Mr Pisanos said scrutiny of social media accounts will be a big part of the next phase of Operation Soteria where live intel analysts will scrape data and act on the information they glean.

He said young people who behave like criminals and terrorise their communities won’t escape the law.

The new bail laws have had made a dent in the youth crime wave but police would not be taking their “foot off the pedal” when dealing with juveniles who were brazenly “taunting police”, Mr Pisanos said.

“We’ve arrested 155 offenders for aggravated break and enter and stealing cars, the focus of Soteria and 75 per cent of those have been juveniles ,” Mr Pisanos said.

“A significant percentage of those have been on bail and breaching bail by committing those offences.”

Police will target social media accounts in their crackdown on post and boast offenders. Picture: NSW Police

NSW Police search cars as part of Operation Soteria. Picture: NSW Police

The Minns Government introduced an additional test under section 22C of the Bail Act 2013 last year, for young people aged between 14 and 18 who are charged with certain offences while on bail for another offence of that type.

Under the law, bail must not be granted unless the bail authority has a ‘high degree of confidence the young person will not commit a serious indictable offence while on bail’ subject to any proposed bail conditions.

“The changes to the bail act have definitely made a difference in terms of specifically dealing with repeat and violent offending.

“At this point of Steria, it’s early days but we are seeing a 40 per cent reduction in the three months.”

Mr Pisanos stressed police were also using “diversion opportunities when they are available”.

“We are still working in partnership with other government and non government agencies and looking at ways to defer kids from committing these crimes. There are a lot of complicated factors, there is social disadvantage, poor school attendance, drug and alcohol and family violence, we want to give these kids the best opportunity we can to make a change in their lives.

“But for the ones who are not copping the tip, who are committing these violent offences over and over again, we won’t tolerate that.”

Police are working around the clock to stop violent crimes in regional NSW. Picture: NSW Police

Deputy Commissioner Paul Pisanos says police ‘will not take their foot off the pedal’. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

On Friday Soteria officers nabbed a teen involved in a dangerous showdown with police in Kempsey a week earlier.

Police were patrolling the Pacific Highway at 4am on June 21 when they attempted to stop a utility that had been reported stolen. When the vehicle didn’t stop they gave chase, deployed road spikes but then lost sight of the vehicle.

A short time later, the utility drove past Kempsey Police Station and a headrest was thrown from the ute, causing minor damage to a police vehicle. When an officer inspected the damage he was hit in the abdomen by a second headrest.

The ute sped away but again came under the attention of police when a large rock was thrown at the police vehicle again, smashing the front windscreen and rendering it inoperable.

On Friday police executed a search warrant on a home and arrested a 16-year-old boy who was charged with two counts of being carried in conveyance taken without consent of the owner. He was refused bail.

Originally published as Brazen teen thugs to face hi-tech surveillance crackdown