Five teenagers are "lucky they’ve ended up in Youth Aid and not in a hospital bed" after fleeing police in a stolen car driven by a 13-year-old, which crashed in South Dunedin at the weekend.
Sergeant Matt Lee, of Dunedin, said police discovered the stolen vehicle travelling in the city about 12.10am on Saturday and signalled for it to stop.
"But it fled at speed, so the vehicle was not pursued by police," he said.
Fifteen minutes later, police were called to Tedder St, in St Kilda, where the stolen car had crashed into a vehicle parked in the narrow street.
Sgt Lee said the car was travelling at such a high speed, the collision pushed the parked vehicle up on to the footpath and damaged both of its front tyres.
"The stolen vehicle continued along Tedder St until it crashed into a fence, and then all the occupants have decamped the vehicle.
"A police dog tracked them from the scene of the crash and located a 15-year-old and two 14-year-olds," he said.
They were formally charged for unlawfully taking a vehicle, failing to stop for red and blue lights, dangerous driving and unlawfully getting into a stolen vehicle.
They are expected to appear in the Dunedin Youth Court this week.
Sgt Lee said further investigations led to two other occupants of the stolen vehicle — two 13-year-olds, one of whom was the driver.
"These kids are lucky they’ve ended up in Youth Aid and not in a hospital bed.
"It’s always a concern when young people are driving stolen vehicles.
"Obviously, we’ve attempted to stop them and they’ve driven dangerously in a bid to escape us and evade us, and through their own manner of driving they’ve crashed.
"So they’re endangering themselves as well as everyone else on the road."
He said it was the kind of behaviour that had killed other young people.
While the 15 and 14-year-olds would go through the court process and have bail conditions placed on them to stop them from further offending, Sgt Lee said the 13-year-olds would not be charged, despite one of them being the driver.
He said because the 13-year-olds were still considered "children", they could not be officially charged unless they had committed a category one offence like homicide, rape or arson.
They will be referred to Youth Aid.
University of Canterbury crime and justice researcher Jarrod Gilbert said it was "a tricky situation".
"People have the right to demand that action is taken on these kids, but that action might exacerbate problems rather than mitigate them."
"When young people enter the criminal justice realm, often the problem is exacerbated because they are surrounded by other troubled young people and their behaviour may become institutionalised," Dr Gilbert said.
He believed the cause of young people stealing cars and doing ram-raids was they came from "utterly dysfunctional" families, and were looking for "attention and status" from social media.
"There is no quick fix. The solution is long term.
"But something needs to be done. It’s not a stretch to say someone could be killed by this behaviour."
Police statistics show Otago youths getting caught stealing cars increased over the past year, from 62 people under 17 in 2022, to 85 in 2023.
Officers are dedicated to locating these offenders — many of whom were repeat offenders, stealing multiple cars in a night.
