‘Young people get swept up’: WRPS seeing more youth in latest crimes
Posted Mar 5, 2025 11:21:01 AM.
Last Updated Mar 5, 2025 03:42:58 PM.
The Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) continues to crack down on the recent rises in car thefts, jewellery store robberies, and other crimes, as officers say they are noticing an unfortunate trend of youth-based offences.
It comes as WRPS said robberies as a whole increased by 5 per cent, or 286 cases, in 2024, with jewellery store robberies specifically increasing by over 80 per cent.
WRPS Chief Mark Crowell said many of those crimes that have carried over into 2025 have been carried out by young people, often looking to join or are part of organized crime.
“Everyone is on the hook, and accountability rests with every individual for what they do, what they get involved with,” said Crowell. “But there’s no doubt that young men are being drawn into organized crime networks. They are being swept up into robberies, vehicle thefts, and other related behaviour.”
He said the general perception that young people receive lighter punishments in the criminal system has led those gangs to abuse it as a sort of loophole, having youth be more directly involved in the crimes they commit.
“It’s like everything we know about crime and everything you’ve seen in movies and television. When you have a network of organized people, they are going to find ways to find gaps in issues within the system where they can break through, and young people get swept up into that.”
Crowell states it’s already an unfortunate trend to see, and one aspect that makes it further troublesome is the fact that it leads those organized crime groups to send young people out into more dangerous situations.
“They’re carrying out the tough, violent work for people who are profiting immensely,” said Crowell. “We’re always trying to find the root cause of the problem, and so we have to address it at the highest level from an intelligence and organized crime standpoint.”
Crowell mentioned it’s become a problem that needs to be addressed from the top down before real progress will be made. He adds further intervention is needed with those youth in order to get them on a better path.
