Dubbo Police work closely with young people to help reduce crime

Orana and Far West Superintendent Tim Chinn said the Dubbo PCYC has seen around 200 young people attending various activities on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night.

"That's given some good dividends and prevented some crime and obviously given young people various opportunities and activities to engage in," he said.

The high number of participants has come from word of mouth of the kids involved in the program, which is a good sign according to Mr Chinn.

"It's not so much the police or an authority telling these kids to attend, it's the kids telling other kids to come along to this," he said.

Superintendent Chinn said notoriety amongst peers was one of the biggest factors for the rise in motor vehicle theft across the region.

"Putting it on Facebook or social media has been an attraction to that...so we feel that it's had a big impact on stolen motor vehicles," he said.

It's not only the PCYC the Dubbo Police have been working with to reduce crime but also Youth Command and an Aboriginal Youth Team.

The Aboriginal Youth Team runs Project Walwaay, which provides opportunities for at-risk young people to succeed through diversionary programs, education and employment.

"This has had some great success," Mr Chinn said.

In 2021 Project Walwaay received a silver award in the police-led category of the 2021 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPA).

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All of the different services that are engaged with youth have allowed the police to interact with the kids in various games and activities.

"We aren't just dealing with them on the street in an authority sort of manner, it shows that we can be human and form a relationship in that regard, and it does assist us in making an impact with some of these issues," he said.

Crime in the region was spoken about at great length at a Dubbo Regional Council meeting last month, with the idea of a summit to address the issue floated before being rejected.

Mayor Mathew Dickerson said a summit would be a "bad look" while councillor Jess Gough added "I don't know if the solution is bringing down a bunch of suits and bringing the media in saying 'look at our crime problem".

But, Superintendent Chinn said if a summit or crime workshop was to come up, they would "certainly" look at it and see if there's anything they can do to help on that particular issue.

"We do work closely with the council and other organisations on crime and a number of other issues impacting our communities," he said.

Superintendent Chinn said he had noticed through his time at different committee meetings that the community and the organisations in the region work well with the police in trying to help get youth on the straight and narrow.

"We have Aboriginal engagement officers, youth liaison officers and other support groups throughout the district that work closely with the community on various issues," he said.