YOUTH CRIME — THE 2-STEP ANSWER

A #PhilAckmanArticle

Cairns and its sister towns and cities in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory live in a youth crime spotlight and the incandescent rage of a citizenry tired of having their cars stolen and their homes pillaged.

But a newly elected Cairns Regional Council has to be seen to be doing something. Their breathtaking announcement — a new First Peoples Advisory Consultants Group to replace a First Peoples Advisory Committee that “wasn’t working well”. One Councillor said he wanted to see the new Group burdened with key performance (KPI) indicators to ensure they don’t just have a meeting to have a meeting.

The new First Nations consultants will be paid $150 an hour up to a limit of $5,000 a year, which this reporter hazards will be reached by every delegate to the last cent. The KPI to rule them all. What it might do to improve the sometimes fractious relations between indigenous and other local residents is unclear. Nor is there any mention of how it might — in some unspecified way — reduce crime.

Ironically on the latest Queensland Police numbers, youth crime is down 2% in the last year. A handy result with a State election just 12 weeks away. This must be jaw-dropping news for the National Indigenous Times who in January reported: “…Indigenous children are 21.3 times more likely to be in the youth justice system than non-Indigenous children …representing 65 per cent of all children and young people in youth detention, despite making up only 8.8 per cent of the youth population”

In New South Wales, meanwhile, police have hit the finish line for a five year plan to improve relations with the State’s 278,000 Indigenous citizens. Their lofty — but entirely fuzzy goal — to work with other parts of Government to stop so many Aboriginal people ending up in the criminal justice system. A further goal — to help young Aboriginal people by improving their safety and wellbeing.

The results, regrettably, are far from fuzzy. Of the 5,400 on remand from court appearances since 2018, almost a third were indigenous — about nine times over-represented — since they comprise only about 3.4% of the State’s population.

The Indigenous youth crime numbers were even more horrifying. Of 169 10-17 year olds who felt the long arm of the law, fully ⅔ were Indigenous. Over the same five year period the number of non Indigenous before the Courts fell by more than 40% while the number of Indigenous zoomed lawlessly upwards — by a sad 20%.

Police say they’re trying to understand what’s behind these trends and recently completed a research project, which “highlighted the complex intersection between intergenerational trauma, low socioeconomic outcomes and vulnerability to both victimisation and offending” — whatever that might mean. Police Commission Karen Webb, however, wanted to make the Police position crystal clear: “ (Our) primary role.. is law enforcement, and suggesting NSWPF is responsible for achieving Closing the Gap outcomes would lead to competing duties”

But the Aboriginal Legal Service was having none of that, nailing a dilemma that has trapped State Governments and their police forces in a maze of colliding objectives, accusations, and feel-good statements. “The people of NSW should be furious the gap is widening under our government’s watch. Closing the Gap is everyone’s responsibility, and NSW Police have a critical role to play.”

Also weighing in, the New South Wales Law Enforcement Conduct Commissioner: “I don’t think it’s helpful to say ‘we just enforce the law’ because it’s not a uniform approach. Police have enormous discretion in the way in which they choose to enforce the law, and that, at the moment, is statistically disadvantaging Aboriginal people.

Meanwhile, Victoria Police have been playing out their own experimental justice program. Their Youth Crime Prevention and Early Intervention Project has been running as a joint venture with local welfare groups in Melbourne’s outer Western suburbs. since late 2020. The pilot program has been testing whether re-offending rates among children and young adults aged 10 to 24 can be slashed through cautions, diversions, legal education and social support.

Opposition Police spokesman Brad Battin, however, has been unimpressed with the study and its much anticipated but still unreleased results. “Our fear is …the government is trying to implement things with no consequences for young kids. There is a cohort who should never be on these programs. They’re too violent.”

Victoria — like Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory — is in the grip of a youth crime tsunami. Latest data shows 14-17 year olds accounted for 18,729 crimes in 2023 — surging almost 30% on the previous year. The crimes include assault, burglaries, car thefts and robberies. Also a scary 22% uptick on offending by children aged 10-13.

Meanwhile the Northern Territory police force is under siege. The Territory’s overall crime rate is more than double the national average despite a Police force proportionally more than two and a half times larger than any other State or Territory.

NT also suffers the nation’s highest rates of family and domestic violence. Police receive more than 320,0000 emergency calls a year — around one every 90 seconds — and an investigative overload of more than 800,000 hours a year.

Impossible to ignore the fallout from the fatal shooting of Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker — killed by Constable Zachary Rolfe, despite his later acquittal on charges of murder and manslaughter. Since then, the force has been under investigation for multiple allegations of racism — along with the lowest community satisfaction rate in the country — lousy job satisfaction — crippling resignation rates — and a losing battle to recruit new officers somehow reluctant to join the fray.

In the white heat of a late August NT election, the Government has announced a $570m boost to the police budget — over the next five years. Presumably promises two, three and four years into the future are already over-subscribed. It also announced greater support to officers in recognition of a “difficult” job, including funding up to $20,000 for relocation, housing allowances of $30,000 a year or free housing, and improved salary and shift allowances. And announced its newest and most senior Indigenous appointment — Arrernte lawyer, Leanne Liddle, who says she is ready to lead a “complete transformation” of the NT police.

“There will be significant cultural reform,” she promised – “including recruiting 30% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation”

Little detail as to how and over what timeframe a third of the Force are to be Indigenous — or what might happen to officers already serving. Nor any insight into how an Indigenous Police officer might produce better results than his white counterpart.

Meanwhile, just 30 per cent of Australians have faith in the country’s courts and justice system according to a new poll.

But more than double that number trust the police and feel safe in their homes and suburbs. Sixty nine percent of us — with just 13 per cent who said they did not. The other 18%? Presumably watching LegoMasters and not to be distracted.

Given this endless swirl of competing ideas for youth crime— and its close relative — Indigenous youth crime — it might be time for our straight-shooting State Premiers to tell us precisely what they plan to do.

Either police in the four States and Territories are fairly upholding the law and arresting those who break it. Or Police in most towns, cities, and regional centres along the eastern and northern seaboard are racists, unfairly picking on youths and the Indigenous.

Once the pollies have selected from these two stark choices, they should identify which of three available solutions they propose to pursue.

Option 1: Police — whether Indigenous or white — become social welfare workers & psychologists trying to get to the cause of youth crime to reduce it — an experiment already unfolding in both New South Wales and Victoria.

Option 2: They turn a blind eye to youth crime. — the most effortless way to fix the crime stats. Lots of complex reasons why they might commit more crime, the Premiers would say, but it’s too hard to figure out, so we’ve told the Police not to arrest them.

Option 3: Police — again — Indigenous or white — reasonably arrest people who commit crimes — regardless of ethnicity or skin colour.

In time we shall see whether the chosen option works — and at the ballot box — how we feel about it.

I’m #philackman and this #philackmanarticle first to air on #cairnsfm89.1