Running riot: How children as young as 12 are taking ice, breaking into homes and terrorising elderly residents in a rural community under siege - and their parents are doing NOTHING
- A town in regional NSW is under siege by delinquent, drug-taking children
- Officer Jeff Budd told Daily Mail Australia 15-20 kids were wreaking havoc
- They have been targeting elderly residents and breaking into their homes
- Officer Budd said children as young as 12 were taking methamphetamines
A town is in crisis after a six-week crime spree where children as young as 12, who are taking ice and being given cannabis by their parents, are terrorising the area's most vulnerable residents.
Tamworth, in northeast NSW, is being ruled by kids who are 'casing' houses and breaking in - sometimes in broad daylight.
More than a dozen young people, many of them repeat offenders, have been arrested and hauled in front of a judge in the past few weeks after a series of home invasions targeted at elderly and vulnerable residents.
More than a dozen children, some as young as 12, have been arrested in the past six weeks as Tamworth battles a youth crime crisis
Top cop Jeff Budd says children are taking drugs given to them by their parents and heading down the wrong path
Tamworth's Chief Inspector Jeff Budd said the courts were effectively powerless to stop the delinquents, who were being pushed into a bad lifestyle by their parents.
'They case joints and suss out targets,' he said.
'It's normally the elderly and vulnerable [they target] - they do break and enters.
'These kids are from welfare-driven families who drink alcohol, take drugs and for them, stealing off people is a sport.
'It's sad to see - they're all very creative kids. They're smart enough to work out how to break into someone's home without getting caught, but they're not putting their talent to any good use.'
This week, four children - one of them only 12 years old - were charged over a break-in at an elderly woman's home in the regional town, more than 400km north-east of Sydney.
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The alleged break-in took place in the middle of the day, with the 86-year-old occupant returning home about 4.30pm to find her home had been ransacked.
All four were granted conditional bail by the Tamworth Children's Court.
Officer Budd says he 'feels sorry' for the courts, because there are 'no options' other than incarceration or bail for these young offenders.
'We do the best we can,' he said.
'We've [police] made many arrests in the last six weeks. We've put them before the court.
'Across NSW, and I suspect Australia - there's not too many programs doing the right things by these kids, or that are intrusive enough to make a change.'
Officer Budd (centre) said while locals were up in arms, they were only sharing information on Facebook, not contacting police
The seasoned police officer said it was important people understood their reactions determined their law enforcement.
He said locals were up in arms over the situation, but had stopped calling the police, and started posting on Facebook instead, and 'good people' who encouraged the poster to call the police were often drowned out by 'crackpots' who said it would do no good.
'My absolute message is the community gets what they ask for,' he said.
'We've got a lot of good people in town - they're all posting they're seeing things happen, but not calling the police.
'We want people to ring us and talk to us so we can respond to these things... we want to clean up our crime.'
Officer Budd said he wanted to see things change, not just for the town but for the children who were heading down a dangerous path, which would see them incarcerated - or worse, dead - before they hit adulthood.
The children have been casing houses and finding 'creative ways' of breaking into cars and houses
'What's been happening, is they break into homes, they scare and confront the occupants - then there's confrontations and then people get assaulted,' he said.
'Either one of these kids will end up seriously hurt, or someone else will be seriously injured or killed.'
He said something needed to change not just with the community, but with the way juvenile crimes are prosecuted, the rehabilitation options that exist, and with the nonchalant families watching their children go down the wrong path.
'They deadset think it's a game,' Budd said.
'I've seen families come out of a court and high-five because their delinquent kid has got off another charge.
'I'm not bagging the courts for that - the laws and programs [that could help young offenders] just don't exist.'
The officer said he would like to see people concerned about youth crime become more involved in the situation, whether that was by being more vigilant with their reports to police, or by writing to lawmakers to demand a change in the way young offenders are dealt with.
'Let's get our kids on track, educated, out of a life of crime and dependence on welfare,' he said.
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