Extra police flown to WA town to address rise in juvenile crime

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Extra police have flown into the WA Kimberley town of Kununurra after dozens of juveniles were charged over a spate of burglaries and car thefts, that have put the community on edge. Locals are working together to find long term solutions, but there are no quick fixes, leaving vulnerable young people without adequate support.

Transcript

00:00It's a quiet night in Kananara, as officers find girls under 10 wandering the streets.

00:16As officers are looking for a safe home for the girls, the town as a whole is looking

00:22for ways to address youth crime challenges affecting children aged between 10 and 17.

00:28Extra police have flown to Kananara to assist, but locals know the answers must come from within.

00:37We have the answers here. Aboriginal people have the answers.

00:40We just need to be engaged in meaningful ways that help create outcomes.

00:46What do we need?

00:48After years working for Youth Justice, Tamale Howard opened a cafe that she runs as a social enterprise.

00:54It comes back to working with families. We're working with intergenerational trauma issues.

01:03Healing has to be part of the solution.

01:05A solution driven by locals.

01:07As a young Indigenous person here in Kananara, they look up and they find another Aboriginal

01:12person and say, well it might not be that hard if we can do it. They don't have to look too

01:16far to find what not to do within their own households or within their families. So if

01:20we can have those daily chats on what they can do and what they can aspire to be and they

01:25need someone with a helping hand along the way.

01:27I feel like it is good to have role models around the community for kids to look up to and see you

01:32doing good things and maybe think, oh yeah, I want to do that too. How do they do that?

01:37The Aboriginal Legal Service says removing children from families that need support

01:42does not address the root causes of the problem.

01:45Some children who have been removed from their homes and placed to farm community placements,

01:50those children are also involved in re-offending. So the idea that you can remove children and

01:57place them in separate homes or put them in secure placements and the offending will stop,

02:01that's not true.

02:02She also says detention is not a solution.

02:06If you take that child and you put them in detention for three days at our police station

02:12and then fly them down to Perth off-country to an alien environment,

02:16I think you're not necessarily teaching that child a lesson.

02:21You're just adding trauma for an already traumatized child.

02:25What's your favorite?

02:27The rest.

02:28There are safe spaces for children in Kananara, but they're not open 24-7.

02:34A new night space is due to open next year, to extend that support throughout the night.

02:45It's 1am and these girls are at the local police station,

02:49with officers unable to find the responsible adult to look after them.

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