It comes amid moves to lift the age of criminal responsibility in South Australia from 10 to 14, with the SA Police Association opposing the change and calling for the rejection of a Greens bill to legislate it.

SA Police has reported several instances of youth crime over the past week, including the arrests of two boys aged 11 and 12 after a chase involving an allegedly stolen car yesterday.

A 13-year-old was also charged over an alleged armed robbery in Adelaide’s CBD yesterday, while two girls aged 14 and 16 were arrested and charged on Monday with three counts of illegal interference, theft, disorderly behaviour and unlawful possession.

A local newspaper this morning reported that a “wave of youth crime” was “terrorising innocent citizens” under the headline “Kids’ crime wave terror”.

But Police Commissioner Grant Stevens told radio this morning that police “haven’t seen anything at this point in time that would indicate that we’re seeing a high level of incidents occurring involving young people”.

He said police were “aware of the level of focus that’s being applied to young offenders at the moment” and were “looking for the uptick”.

“We haven’t seen anything at this point in time that would indicate there’s been an increase outside of what you might call normal fluctuations of crime activity,” he said.

“The offences are occurring, but we are hearing about them more often.

“It’s a refined focus – you hear about 11, 12-year-olds committing crime at a time when we’re talking about changing the way we handle young offenders.

“I think it really brings it into focus and more people are more acutely aware of just how many young people are committing some pretty serious crimes and putting us at risk with the way they drive these cars they’re taking.”

Attorney-General Kyam Maher told reporters yesterday that he doubted there had been a surge in youth crime.

“I don’t think the statistics bear out that there has been a huge increase in youth crime, but it is still an overriding responsibility of any government to make sure they’re focussed on community safety,” he said.

InDaily asked SA Police for data showing how many young people aged under 18 had been charged with criminal offences over the past year and how that number compared with previous years.

In response, a SA Police spokesperson told InDaily to submit a Freedom of Information request.

Stevens said SA Police regularly dealt with children in state care with “troubled backgrounds”.

He said custody was considered a “last resort issue” for young offenders.

“We’re talking about young kids here and I think we need to acknowledge that some of the people that the police are dealing with – these young offenders – they don’t have a fantastic support network,” he said.

“They come from very troubled backgrounds and they’re a product of their environment and I think the intention or the endeavour is to divert these kids away from the criminal justice system, give them the assistance and support they need so they can actually grow up and lead fulfilling lives.

“Having said that, we have some pretty hardcore offenders who need a more interventionist approach.”

Greens MLC Robert Simms earlier this year reintroduced a private member’s bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.

If passed, the legislation would release all children aged under 14 from youth detention within a month.

Under current legislation, children aged between 10 and 14 are deemed incapable of understanding the full consequences of their actions, but that is a rebuttable presumption, meaning judges can convict them of criminal offences and sentence them to detention if their crimes are deemed serious.

In 2020-21, 43 children aged between 10 and 13 were detained at the Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre at Cavan in Adelaide’s north. Many of those children were Aboriginal, had disabilities, or were in the child protection system.

Groups such as the SA Law Society, Youth Affairs Council of SA, SA Training Centre Visitor and SA Council of Social Service have called for the criminal age to be lifted, arguing primary school-aged children are not capable of understanding the full consequences of their actions and do not belong in detention.

But the SA Police Association and Commissioner for Victims’ Rights are calling on politicians to vote down Simms’ bill, saying the existing legislation already sets a high bar of criminal responsibility.

In a newsletter to members in August, the Police Association’s president Mark Carroll wrote that raising the criminal age would “merely increase the catchment group of potential recruits to organised criminals”.

“In all probability, it will condemn these recruits to a lifetime of crime and the consequences that will inevitably flow to the individual, to victims and to society,” he wrote.

Maher told InDaily this morning that a bipartisan agreement was reached by all states in August to develop proposals to raise the age of criminal responsibility.

“Work continues at a national level, and in South Australia, in relation to proposals to raise the age, having regard to any carve outs, timing and discussion of implementation requirements,” he said.

Maher said yesterday that he was considering how other countries had lifted the criminal age, including what programs or interventions were put in place to reduce the likelihood of children reoffending.