The youth crime unit: Hawke’s Bay’s newest police team focuses attention on teens

Hawke’s Bay police say they’ve had some early success after intensifying their focus on catching youth offenders a month ago, and they don’t plan on ending that focus any time soon.

A dedicated police team targeting youth crime in Hawke’s Bay was formed in mid-January in response to a peak in youth offending which saw an increase in stolen vehicles, fleeing driver events, and commercial burglaries, including ram raids.

Senior Sergeant Neale Saunders, Area Response Manager for Hawke’s Bay, said youth were involved in the majority of these incidents and the team dealt with people as young as 12 and under.

To date, six young people, aged 12 to 16, have been arrested, and a total of 21 charges laid, including charges relating to burglaries at the Cosmic Vape store, King of Swords and the Ahuriri Corner Store.

“Work will continue outside of the court process, along with our partner agencies, looking to provide wider support to these offenders and their families with the aim to prevent re-offending,” Saunders said.

“The team continues to follow positive lines of enquiry to identify further offending and offenders, with more arrests likely.”

Saunders said there was value in cooperation when dealing with youth crime, highlighting the work the team had done with Napier City Council to increase CCTV coverage, and Oranga Tamariki.

“It is not just a police problem, it is societal.”

Saunders said the youth team was not going to stop once they had gotten past the initial hurdle of stymying the current peak in youth crime, and there would be ongoing work done to prevent reoffending.

He said the team checks in on youth on bail and formulates alternate action plans with families, which Saunders describes as a contract between police and the family of youth offenders, about their behaviour.

Saunders said it was a positive sign that there had been no evidence of reoffending to date with the youths they had identified.

“I get the impression that once challenged or caught, that is usually sufficient to make them think twice,” he said.

He said youth offenders were often motivated by notoriety, but police had found that routine, like schooling, helped to mitigate the chances of them reoffending.

”We are working hard to make sure they are back in school or alternate education.”