OUR YOUNG TEENS TURNING TO CRIME

Police reach out to turn the tide

OFFENCES allegedly committed by Geelong 14-yearolds increased by more than 300 per cent in just 12 months, data shows.

The dramatic increase comes as the region’s top police officer, Superintendent Craig Gillard, says police are dealing with a hardcore group of younger teens committing a high volume of offences.

Crime Statistics Agency data exclusively prepared for the Geelong Advertiser reveals alleged offences committed by 14-year-olds in Greater Geelong leapt from 35 in the 12 months to June 2017 to 140 this year.

Most arrests of those aged between 10 and 14 related to theft, burglary or break and enter offences.

While the data shows boys continue to offend at a greater rate than girls, arrests of girls aged 10-17 rose from 136 in 2015-16 to 258 this year.

Across the board, alleged offences committed by teens leading to their arrest dropped by nearly 13 per cent between 2017-18, with 17-year-olds recording the biggest drop.

There were 568 alleged offender incidences involving youths aged 10-17 in 2017-18, down from 647 the year before.

Supt Gillard said new specially-trained youth tasking officers had just started work in Geelong. He said the officers would be deployed to work with the region’s most at risk and vulnerable teens in the hope that early intervention would cut offending rates.

“We have just employed youth support officers, who will be undertaking lots of activities with the school, local government and community organisations to provide support to vulnerable young people,” Supt Gillard said.

“(We will curb crime) by dealing with our most vulnerable youth, those susceptible to committing crime. We need to determine how we can work with them to set them on the right path.”

Supt Gillard said police were dealing with fewer young offenders than in the past, but often found that those who were offending were committing more serious offences.

“We need the young people to see the error of their actions and to decide to engage,” he said.

“We’ve seen less youth offending but those that are offending are getting younger — and those offending are doing so in a serious way.”