TACKLING a “disproportionate” level of youth crime is costing Jersey nearly £2 million a year, the Island’s police chief has revealed – as he warned that current funding is “nowhere near enough” to deal with the scale of the problem.
Robin Smith said that Jersey remains a “very safe island” but said the cost of policing young people was “astonishing” for a population of 100,000 people.
Speaking at a Brighter Futures Jersey conference at the Royal Yacht Hotel this week, Mr Smith reiterated figures he has previously stated that a group of ten young people were responsible for around 10% of all crime.
“Youth crime in Jersey in 2024 rose by 33%,” he said, adding: “There is a disproportionate amount of crime [from] young people.”
With the States police operating on a £30m budget, Mr Smith made clear the strain this places on resources.
“It’s nowhere near enough,” he said.
Although overall crime fell by 6.2% last year and youth crime dipped slightly, custodial sentences for children have risen sharply in recent years, while repeat offending continues to drive demand across multiple public services.
Drawing on four decades of policing experience, Mr Smith said he has witnessed the same families becoming trapped in cycles of crime, trauma and instability across generations.
“I’ve dealt with parents, their children and now increasingly their grandchildren – the same patterns repeating decade after decade,” he said.
He warned that the true cost of youth offending goes far beyond individual crimes, placing sustained pressure on police, health, education and social services.
“The real cost is not the crime. The real cost is the waste – wasted money, wasted opportunity, wasted potential,” he said.
Officers are frequently dealing with “symptoms” such as missing persons, exploitation concerns and mental health crises, rather than underlying causes, he added.
Mr Smith used case studies to underline the scale of repeat offending – including one young person linked to 39 offences, 30 judicial sanctions , and 22 probation orders.
He insisted the solution lies in prevention rather than punishment alone, calling for greater investment in early intervention services.
“Early intervention is not a nice-to-have; it’s the cheapest point in the system,” he said. “Every pound invested is a pound we don’t have to spend later.”
Without that shift, he warned, the Island risks continuing to spend heavily reacting to crime rather than preventing it.
“If we want safer streets, fewer victims, we must intervene early to change the trajectory, not just to respond to the crisis at the end,” he said.
