City of Rockingham calls for return of officer dedicated to working with area’s youth

WA Police need to reinstate an officer’s position to help with the region’s growing youth population, according to the City of Rockingham.

Its council has backed a proposal from Cr Mike Crichton that the city push the State Government to employ a full-time permanent community engagement officer across the Baldivis and Rockingham police stations.

In his proposal, Cr Crichton said a full-time dedicated community engagement officer would help strengthen relationships and “build greater respect” for police.

The city is covered by the Baldivis and Rockingham police stations, which are part of the Mandurah policing district.

A council report said the Mandurah district police office previously had a police community and youth engagement team (PCET) comprising a sergeant and two officers, but the youth engagement officers had recently been moved to frontline policing.

As of March, there was a new co-ordinator for the PCET but no other officers assigned to it.

City officers regularly meet the officers-in-charge at Baldivis and Rockingham police stations which, according to the report, between them service the largest youth and total population figures in the district.

“The population and specific youth data across the Mandurah policing district demonstrates that the area and volume of people to engage for one WAPOL community and youth engagement officer may be unrealistic,” it said.

Cr Crichton said at the May 26 meeting his proposal was prompted by antisocial behaviour at the Baldivis Sporting Complex skate park, which he said had since been sorted.

“There appears to be ongoing issues there and across the board,” he said.

“It’s not isolated to the Baldivis Sporting Complex, there’s other issues across our whole city.

“We all know we’re growing, and this is to go across and not just focus on Baldivis but to go across both Baldivis and also Rockingham police station.”

He said an ex-police officer said having a community youth engagement officer had been successful in reducing the crime rate and antisocial behaviour.

“In recent times, the WA Police Service determined ... within the Mandurah district office and other policing districts to reallocate the youth engagement officer positions to frontline policing, which I found quite interesting, and I don’t know how you draw the analysis from that, whether that’s had an impact, but I suspect it has,” he said.

“This is not about criticising or slamming our police service. It’s about supporting and working with our local police, which we know we’ve got a really good relationship with.”

Deputy mayor Robert Schmidt said he had worked alongside youth engagement officers at Warnbro Community High School and they were focused on “redirection”.

“That role of that youth engagement officer had a 60 per cent success rate of prevention and diversion away from criminal activity,” he said.

“I can tell you now that that 60 per cent is well and truly gone.

“You just walk into Warnbro shopping centre after school and you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.”

Cr Schmidt said he was “gobsmacked” when youth engagement officers were sent to the frontline.

“Yes, we’ve got to provide frontline services ... but the problem is a national problem with youth,” he said.

Cr Ryan Robertson said youth engagement officers were a great way to defuse some people’s perception of police as a threat versus someone who was there to support them.

“I certainly wouldn’t be in a position of where I am ... if it wasn’t for the mentors in my life,” he said.

“And my work through the local footy clubs, often the kids that are the most troubling are actually the greatest kids when you get them one-on-one.”

The council report acknowledged the support of police but said it had since become difficult for the city and police to commit to joint events because of competing police demands.

“The advantage of collaborating with PCET directly was that they were available to commit to participate in community engagements, meetings and events,” the report said.