Cops, mob mingle on patrol to fix youth

Police have joined forces with agencies across South Hedland to tackle youth crime rates.

Senior Sergeant Dean Snashall said most of the children police dealt with were "well entrenched" in the system by 14 years of age.

Last year, 188 juveniles were arrested on 584 charges in South Hedland.

The arrests did not include offenders who were under 10, or children on their first offences who were cautioned or referred to a Juvenile Justice Team.

In an effort to break down barriers, police will conduct regular patrols of South Hedland town centre with Youth Involvement Council's Mingle Mob team, who pick up an average of 30 children off the street each Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.

YIC chairwoman Gloria Jacob, who welcomed the patrols, said she was concerned not enough was being done to break the cycle of offending with children as young as four walking the streets unsupervised at night.

"Youth crime has to be a whole-of-community approach and one of the biggest things people need to do is have empathy for those kids," she said.

"The houses they come from are generally not safe and the community needs to realise that - people are not out on the street because they want to be.

"They go out and meet with other kids in the same situation and when you have a handful of them they become a gang and they get up to mischief to occupy themselves."

Sen. Sgt Snashall said the main offences committed by children were stealing related and he hoped the new patrols with Mingle Mob would help improve relationships between police and children.

"We'll engage them in a non-confrontational process so it won't be us saying get in the back of the van, we're taking you home; it will be us asking where are you staying, what are you doing, where's mum or where's nanna and the Mingle Mob can give us information about those kids as well," he said.

The new partnership will work both ways, with police also informing Mingle Mob which children are on curfews.

Ms Jacob said the community needed to provide support programs to the whole family.