Recent challenges in regional towns with rock throwing, car stealing, arson and violent assaults have highlighted how ineffective current policies on youth crime are in our regions.
WA Labor needs to urgently examine how a youth curfew could assist local police in towns like Kununurra, Broome, Port Hedland and Carnarvon.
“Local police commanders should have the power to impose localised curfews for extended periods of time when required” said the Hon Neil Thomson MLC Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region.
This should come into effect when youth crime is spiking.
Preventing unaccompanied youths wandering about in our communities without a valid reason (e.g. sport, work or other) after a certain time of the night should be priority number one.
The Police should have the power to take youths home.
Where the home is not a suitable option, they should be taken to an alternative safe house where they would remain under super-vision until they can be assessed by the Department of Child Protection.
If these provisions were available, curfews could be imposed when school attendance was a problem in a particular community.
It should be noted that school attendance has dropped in the last four years to as low as 30% in some regional towns.
A system of youth curfews cannot happen in isolation. Greater investment into safe houses, social workers who work after hours, night patrols, youth activities and youth diversion facilities are urgently needed.
The community needs alternatives to Banksia Hill detention so that those who are detained can return there once their sentence has been completed.
Youth diversion facilities on remote locations where young people can be trained as well as gain the right skills to take them back into society are urgently needed.
Irresponsible individuals are letting their children roam the streets and gravitate to crime. Ringleaders lead disenfranchised youth into a life of engagement with the justice system.
“Sadly, large numbers of children are also experimenting with drugs, alcohol and petrol sniffing which is destroying another genera-tion in our regional towns.” said Mr Thomson.
Recently, after data showed massive increases in violent crime in our regions, Minister Paul Papalia defended this by saying it was a result of increased reporting of family violence.
“Is the Minister suggesting that increased reports of family violence were a good thing? I hope not. It is disappointing that the Min-ister for Police would hide behind an increasing number of victims to provide political cover.” said Mr Thomson.
He went to note that “Even after family violence is removed from the data, violent crime has increased. Over the last eight years
violent crime has increased by over 70% which is twice the growth rate of metropolitan figures, and this fig-ure has exceeded 100% in some towns.”
The Minister should be calling out the appalling data on violence for what it is, that is a crisis.