An­na-Lisa Paul

A se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer has ap­pealed to par­ents and guardians of mi­nors who are mem­bers of gangs or in­volved in gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties to seek help from the po­lice, as they could face charges for har­bour­ing gang mem­bers.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing yes­ter­day, the North­ern Di­vi­sion’s Sr Supt Ker­win Fran­cis said ear­ly in­ter­ven­tion could keep young peo­ple out of jail and save their par­ents and guardians from end­ing up on the wrong side of the law.

“Our in­ves­ti­ga­tions will con­sid­er your con­duct in these mat­ters and pros­e­cu­tion will be on the ta­ble for con­sid­er­a­tion, so I am ap­peal­ing to par­ents please, if your mi­nor is in­volved in crim­i­nal con­duct, take that mi­nor to the po­lice sta­tion,” he said.

Fran­cis said if there is no in­ter­ven­tion, mi­nors could find them­selves in the cus­tody of state agen­cies with mat­ters be­fore the court.

“Bring your chil­dren in­to the care of the po­lice to give them some sort of guid­ance to steer them away from crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty,” he said.

He added that po­lice youth clubs and the var­i­ous of­fer­ings from the Com­mu­ni­ty Polic­ing Sec­re­tari­at are al­ter­na­tives to get chil­dren in­volved in pos­i­tive ac­tiv­i­ties.

“Un­der the An­ti-Gang Act, there is an of­fence cre­at­ed which is called coun­selling a gang and one of the pro­vi­sions in that sec­tion speaks to oth­er­wise sup­port­ing the ac­tiv­i­ties of a gang mem­ber or of a gang.

“Un­der the An­ti-Gang Act, there is al­so an of­fence of har­bour­ing a gang mem­ber or a gang leader, so it is with­in that frame­work, that state­ment was made,” Fran­cis said

“It was not a threat but sim­ply an in­di­ca­tion that the in­ves­ti­ga­tions would be ro­bust enough to con­sid­er the con­duct of all per­sons who form part of the cir­cle of any mi­nor who might be a mem­ber of a gang and in­volved in gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties.”

He said the TTPS is work­ing on im­prov­ing its in­ter­ac­tion with the pub­lic, and of­fi­cers as­signed to re­cep­tion ar­eas in po­lice sta­tions in the North­ern Di­vi­sion are be­ing trained in cus­tomer re­la­tions.

Fran­cis said there had been com­plaints from the pub­lic about the lack of feed­back and the gen­er­al con­duct of of­fi­cers at sta­tions.