Richmond Police District's Superintendent Scott Tanner has confirmed there has been an increase in crime in the Goonellabah area following anecdotal evidence by local resident Andre Els.

Andre told the Lismore App on Saturday about an increase in crime around the Oliver Avenue area and the public meeting that is being held this weekend at the Goonellabah Sports Club Goonellabah crime is on the rise - one resident is looking for solutions.

"Over the last 2 to 3 months, we've seen an increase in break-and-enters and stolen motor vehicles in the Goonellabah area. That has led to us establishing a strike force called Operation Mongoose," Superintendent (Supt) Tanner explained.

"It's a regional policing initiative that's been successfully deployed across areas in the far west and western areas of the state as well as down in the Hunter area."

"What that means is that we are targeting who we believe are responsible for these offences, which are predominantly young males aged between 15 and 17 who are opportunistic in their crime."

"They are targeting areas where they know there is a low compliance with people locking up their houses and their vehicles. What we've established over the last couple of months is that a lot of the vehicles getting stolen, the keys are still inside the vehicle."

To reinforce that point, Supt. Tanner said only 13% of homes are broken into by forcing entry.

"The rest were opened or unlocked at the time. So what we are doing is encouraging people to have a look at their own situational awareness. Make sure that their keys are not in an accessible place in their home, that their houses are locked and there's no property visible within their vehicles, which makes it a target-rich environment for our crooks."

"People should also just be generally aware of who's around in your area. If you think there's someone that shouldn't be there certainly ring 000 or the police station and report it."

"We estimate there's about probably between 10 and 15 young people that are responsible for the increase in crime. We've just arrested one of those young people this morning. He's currently being charged with a number of aggravated break-ins and stolen motor vehicles. We'll continue to lock people up who are committing these crimes."

The 10-15 thieves are not just in Goonellabah but across the entire Richmond Police District.

"There's a group that is making their way up and down the north coast that have links to our area. So, for instance, they might go down to Yamba or up to Byron Bay and commit crimes and then steal a car, and that car might end up back in Goonellabah and vice versa."

"It's a trend that we're seeing not only in New South Wales but across Australia at the moment. I believe a lot of it is driven by social media. The kids are sharing their exploits on social media, which is then driving them to go the one further."

As we know, a lot of young offenders just get a slap on the wrist so what else is being done?

"We are in the schools all the time. We've got our youth command in the schools and our local PD police doing a number of programs for the school to get kids to make better choices. We've seen some of the terrible outcomes that occur when these things go wrong and that's young people getting killed in stolen motor vehicles. We don't want to be going on to knock on someone else's door to tell them their child had been killed in a car accident because they've been out stealing cars and carrying on."

 "A lot of people want to blame the parents and a lot of people want to blame social media and all this kind of stuff but at the end of the day, it is coming down to the choices that the individual makes. So, all we can do is work with the families, and we do a lot of work with the families, especially ones that are doing it a bit tough, we work with our partners in DCJ and in health and education and provide a whole wraparound support service. But at the end of the day, these kids are just making poor choices."

Concerned Goonellabah resident Andre Els' meeting is this Sunday, March 3 at 10:30am at the Goonellabah Sports Club, all residents are invited to attend. Supt. Tanner has had a meeting with Andre earlier today.

"We explained what we're doing in regards to not only preventing and disrupting and responding but how we want to work with the community better."

"We want to also get the message across that we need to make sure that people's own property is protected and not make it easy for crooks because they will try and find the easiest path to commit a crime. They're not super criminals. If they find an unlocked car, that's a target-rich environment."

"We encourage the community to provide us with information. What we don't want to see is any kind of vigilantism or any overt act of trying to confront people because that can only lead to a litany of problems. Just to reinforce, if people see, suspect or hear anything, please just call us."