General News
24 July, 2024
Senior officer ditches uniform to tackle Mount Isa's youth crime problem
Senior Sergeant Adrian Rieck wants to address the issues that are plaguing many of Queensland's regional cities.
When Senior Sergeant Adrian Rieck opens the office door to greet North West Weekly, it is a little disarming.
The ebullient veteran police officer has traded away his crisply ironed blue uniform for more casual attire.
Familiar to many as officer-in-charge at the Mount Isa station, he has stepped away from his policing duties for the next three months to pursue a passion project – tackling youth crime before any crime is committed.
Snr Sgt Rieck has seen the best and worst that any community can offer in his almost three decades on the job, across 17 policing divisions.
He has also taken his commitment to improving the plight of at-risk youngsters into his private world, having fostered children for over a decade.
“I have seen how kids struggle, and I have also seen the real causes behind crime,” he said.
“Kids aren’t born bad. No one wants to see a kid get into trouble and go down the wrong path. Some families just don’t always have the capacity to help them.
“Someone has to help give these at-risk children a leg up. That’s why I have taken on this new position.”
Snr Sgt Rieck moved to his new position as Youth Partnerships Coordinator at the Mount Isa Early Action Group (EAG) this month and will continue in the position until October.
At this point, other senior police officers will take over the position on three month rotations.
With state government funded programs already operating in Townsville and Cairns, the EAG has been working behind the scenes in our city since December with the assembled team only just recently taking over its offices at Mount Isa House on Camooweal Street.
Like any organisation that has just moved into new digs, the EAG office is still cluttered with half unpacked boxes – there is a to do list of chores required to keep the office spick and span – in fact only a laminated printout of the logo is blue-tacked to the front office door.
But what the office lacks in flash furniture and signage is more than made up for in the community activity it has already undertaken.
In its short existence, there have been about 20 children who have been guided through the EAG program, with a further nine currently on the books and a backlog of other cases currently under review.
The program has a mandate to manage the cases of 20 children at a time.
The EAG program targets youth on the “fringe” of criminal behaviour – children who might be repeatedly truant from school; discovered out on the streets late at night; or are the siblings or friends of young people who are repeat criminal offenders.
These children are often already on the radar of police due to their increasing number of interactions with law enforcement but are yet to commit any crime.
Whereas, in the past, police could generally only take action once the child had committed an offence, the EAG empowers officers, through the involvement of liaison officers and Youth Co-Responder Teams, to take preventative action by referring the child for consideration to the program.
This begins a process that focuses on the underlying troubles that might be steering the young person towards anti-social behaviour.
Once a referral is made, the EAG office undertakes an assessment to determine whether the youth meets the criteria for intensive case management- the child must be between 8-16 years old and not already case managed by Youth Justice or Child Safety and at high-risk of offending.
A team of seven EAG case workers is then on-hand to approach the child’s family, seeking consent for a more thorough examination of their home life, social circle and potential health, transport and financial needs.
The scope of the assessment is quite broad, which is reflected in the varied government agencies that have partnered with the EAG – these include the QPS, Department of Youth Justice, Department of Child Safety, Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Queensland Health, Department of Education and Department of Housing.
Snr Sgt Reick says that one family might need assistance with finding stable accommodation; another might need to have the child examined for hearing difficulties whereas another might need to explore alternative schooling pathways.
“We have a wide scope to try to tap into all the support agencies in town to ask what are the barriers that are stopping the child from becoming successful,” he explained.
“We look at the health and educational needs of the child; the family’s housing and transport and financial needs and we try to find the appropriate support services that are needed.
“We are trying to build the capacity of the family to be successful. We want to see the barriers broken down so the family can go forward.”
Snr Sgt Reick admitted there had been cross-agency attempts to tackle the needs of at-risk children.
However, he said the EAG process was notable for its information sharing capabilities across the government agencies.
The EAG has already signed Memorandums of Understanding with its program partners and case managers proactively seek consent agreements with affected families during the program induction process to ensure that information can be gathered quickly and shared immediately with the groups that can best assist.
The EAG is also in the process of building three reference groups to assist steer its decision-making – a formal reference group of political and community leaders, an Indigenous reference group of Kalkadoon Elders and a youth reference group, which will include student Indigenous officers from local schools and other emerging leaders within the Indigenous community
Snr Sgt Reick said he hoped the youth reference group would assist to provide mentorship to young people in the program.
“It is important for all of us to have people to look up to,” he said.
“If the kids can see another young person who is achieving things and doing the best that they can do, then hopefully that will build self-esteem with the kids in the program to see how they can also be part of that attitude.
“We want to build a routine and capacity to help build self esteem so that kids can ask for help once they know where they can find it and can believe that they can have a future worth staying on the straight and narrow for.”