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Article Police Commissioner: Know Where Your Kids Are At Night

Julia Harris, Journalist.
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5 Comments

Following two out-of-control parties, WA Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan has renewed his vocal call for parents to know where their children are at night.

Police said more than 200 people attended each event and several people were arrested and charged after the South Lake party.  In all, twenty-four police units attended the Rockingham party, while eight units were sent to South Lake.

The Rockingham party was held in a vacant building and had been advertised on Facebook.

Charges could be laid against the party organisers with fines and police operation costs potentially being enforced.

Commissioner O’Callaghan said he believed there are three types of parents in these situations.

“There are parents who, when we take kids home to them, will be concerned and may not have known that their child was out or may have thought they were somewhere else and they’ll respond and do something about it,” he said. “There are parents who know that their children are out somewhere and they don’t care too much about it and then there are a group of parents who are simply not capable of looking after their children properly and so those kids are out on the street all the time and I guess a number of these would fall into this category.”

Child protection authorities have been asked to follow up with parents this week.

“They would’ve been children that we had a particular concern about in that they were out there,” he said.  “They were unsupervised and they were also in moral and physical danger, being exposed to older kids, and of course alcohol and drugs.”

The commissioner was particularly scathing of parents who drove their kids to the Rockingham party.  

“I mean, you’ve got to get real, if you’re going to drop your kids off at a party where you don’t know who’s running it, you don’t know what’s going to be there, you don’t know what controls are in place, you are simply asking for trouble,” he said.  “You’re putting children aged between 12 and 16 into an environment where they’re at high risk.”

Image source: Getty Images

 

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  • Parent’s need to know where their kids are at all times and who they are with!

    Reply

  • Such an important pint that we actually know this party our kids are attending, this ensures their safety.

    Reply

  • Unless the law has been changed, in SA parents cannot stop their child from going out day or night. You cannot physically prevent them from waling out the door. Kids were taught at school at the age of 5 y.o. old that they had rights. If they didn’t what to do what thier parents asked them, they didn’t have to…etc.etc. That was happening in the late 1980s and not appreciated by parents or relatives that had to sleepovers etc. I know a teenager who on several occasions went to bed, then later took the screen off her window and went down into the main street of the town they lived in during the 1960s. Several times when her parents went to bed they checked her room and found she was missing. Her Dad went into the town and made her daughter go back home with him. A few years later when the SA Govt. changed the laws she could have refused and their was nothing her Dad could have done about it……What happened to parents’ rights. Those who genuinely care for and about their children that are misled by others often can’t get quick response from the Police if the can’t find their kids if they consider them old enough to leave home – some leave and live with friends just because they have to abide by what the parents consider is for their safety. Police in some states say don’t wait 24 hours to report them missing……THe first thing said by many when the kids get into trouble is “where were/are the parents???” Allow parents to teach them respect and manners without the attitude “I don’t have to” and parents having no power because of what the kids are taught. Some state welfare depts. are no help. Some staff only know what is in text books – no experience with children at all – and don’t take into account that a child may have a low IQ but not look as though there is an issue, and no two children necessarily respond to advice etc. as another one does.

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  • Kids between 12 and 16 years old? They are outside in the evening and the parents don’t know that? How is it even possible??????

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  • It makes me wonder how much some parents really love their children when they don’t care where they are or who they are with.

    Reply
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