Catch, release crooks outrage
FRUSTRATED police have talked northern NSW residents out of forming vigilante groups to combat theft, saying they are catching the crooks only for them to be let out again.
NSW Police Superintendent Wayne Starling told 34 Casuarina residents at an impromptu crime meeting at the Casuarina Ocean Retreat on Monday night that the criminals were reoffending.
Angry residents spoke of 24 recent motor vehicle thefts between the Kingscliff and Pottsville areas.
One of the thefts included father-of-two Rob Miles unsuccessfully chasing a thief for 40 minutes in his car on July 20.
Mr Miles called the police as the man fled in a Nissan Navara.
He followed him in his work truck along Casuarina Way, on the phone to the police the entire time.
“He stopped and reversed straight towards me so I had to get out of the way,” Mr Miles told the crowd.
“He was throwing stuff at my car.”
The thief took about $10,000 worth of power tools from Mr Miles’ trailer.
Mr Miles wanted to know why police were unable to help in the pursuit or find the man as he continued to give directions to them for 40 minutes.
Supt Starling did not answer on the night, saying he would gather the information and report back to Mr Miles.
In the past seven months, Supt Starling said, police had caught 14 people from NSW and eight from Queensland for stealing offences commited in the Kingscliff, Casuarina and Pottsville areas.
“The problem is we lock them up, place them before the courts and that’s our job done,” Supt Starling said. “They get bail or they get a fine, then they are out there offending again.”
Supt Starling said that in February and March a group of five offenders had come across the border to commit stealing offences at Casuarina.
“We locked those ones up and then in April it started all over again. We thought we were on top of it.
“One of the offenders in the original group was locked up in the second group as well.
“For us, it is a vicious circle because we lock them up, they get smarter about how they do their business and they get out and reoffend.”
Organiser and retreat coowner Damien Rider mentioned forming a vigilante group to combat the problem.
However, Supt Starling advised against it because it was dangerous, civilians did not have the same legal powers as police and did not know what criminals were capable of.
Residents decided to spread the word that people had to lock their vehicles and homes, improve communication within the community and call police to report any crimes or suspicious behaviour no matter how insignificant it seemed.