Mounted police, the riot squad, extra highway and traffic patrols and specialist youth command officers are in the Byron shire for the next few weeks for this year’s Schoolies.
But anyone dreading displays of drunken debauchery and drug addled teenagers may be surprised to learn this generation’s crop of graduating high school students are more interested in sober lunches and selfies with the police horses.
Rite-of-passage celebrations for 2023’s graduates started last Tuesday on QLD’s Gold Coast and at Airlie Beach but police expect up to 8,000 youth to spend time holidaying in Byron Bay.
Previous local events, especially before the pandemic, have often been associated with dangerous youth behaviour, leading to the coordination of various agencies, charities and volunteer groups to help supervise.
But this year’s police numbers are slightly fewer than last year’s, Byron Bay Chief Inspector Matt Kehoe says, and their lead seems to come from Gen Zedders entering adult life.
Assaults and sexual touching reports at Schoolies decrease
‘I’ve certainly seen a change in behavior of young people coming to Schoolies,’ Chief Inspector Kehoe says, ‘I think the first one that I that I did an operation on, maybe seven years ago, pre-COVID, there was a lot of drinking up around Apex Park, a lot of antisocial behavior.’
‘We had a number of sexual assaults, reported assaults in the CBD of Byron Bay,’ the chief inspector says.
‘Probably the last couple of years, I really haven’t seen that happening.’
The chief inspector says Schoolies over the last couple of years have been ‘really quite respectful’.
‘Assaults are way down, as are sexual assaults way down,’ he says, ‘sexual touching is down’.
‘All of those sort of crime category areas all dropped in previous years,’ he says.
National decrease in youth alcohol consumption reflected in Byron Schoolies’ shopping trolleys
Nationwide, a trend downward in the number of young people drinking alcohol, once considered a main feature of Schoolies, started before the pandemic.
Nearly three-quarters of people aged from 14 to 17 surveyed in a 2019 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) study said they chose not to drink alchohol, compared to less than 40 per cent in 2007.
More than a fifth of survey respondents aged from 18 to 24 also said they weren’t drinking alcohol, compared to 13 per cent in 2007.
Locally, Chief Inspector Kehoe says he’s probably seen a change during and post-COVID of young people ‘really wanting to experience the situation’.
‘Perhaps in the past they wanted to drink as much cheap alcohol as they possibly could,’ Chief Inspector Kehoe says.
‘In previous years, I would see the kids with shopping trolleys heading to their accommodation and it’d be full of full of alcohol and Vodka Cruisers and that sort of thing and a couple of packets a two-minute noodles,’ he says.
‘These days you’re seeing them going to Woolworths first and getting all of their food and they might they might just have a six-pack of something in there or even a bottle of wine and they really have changed behavior.’
Chief Inspector Kehoe says ‘kids’ these days really want to ‘go out to perhaps a restaurant or go and have a nice breakfast or a lunch somewhere or go and experience a few things in and around Byron Bay’.
The local police chief says he has spoken with operators of licensed premises in and around Byron Bay all report decreased alcohol sales ‘when Schoolies are around’.
‘The kids probably have a little bit less money too, than adults,’ Chief Inspector Kehoe says, ‘but they aren’t drinking as much, perhaps, as what they used to in the past’.
Youth reminded of rights during police strip-searches
But the experienced officer says while smaller police operations for Schoolies would be something he’d like to see, he always has to prepare for the worst scenario rather than the best.
‘I do need to ensure that we do have adequate resources here,’ he says, ‘in the event that they are needed’.
‘We review our staffing numbers every year and see exactly what is required, and probably the staff numbers up this year are less than what they have been in previous years, but we will always have a police presence in around Byron and that Schoolies period.’
NSW Police still have the right to strip-search minors if they have reason to believe a young person is hiding illicit substances or weapons on or in their person.
Minors must have a suitable support adult present if expected to undergo a strip-search.
The support person can’t be another police officer but may be a parent, guardian, or person ‘representing the interests of the child’ under NSW law.
Young people usually nominate support people themselves but in the event they don’t know anyone suitable locally, Chief Inspector Kehoe says police have support people available ‘who are not, they can’t be, police officers’.
Available support people may be youth workers or church group representatives, ‘something like that’, Chief Insepctor Kehoe says.
‘It’s probably an isolated incident,’ the chief inspector says of strip-searches at Byron’s Schoolies.
‘If any of my staff feel that they do need to undertake a strip-search of a young person and there’s certainly certain criteria that must be met for that to be considered before anything like that is done, they would consult with myself or a police forward commander, who’s running an operation, before such a decision was made,’ he says.
The process is very similar to ‘what happens at our music festivals,’ he says.
Police horses a Schoolies selfie hit
The Schoolies police operation also includes officers from the Youth Command specialist unit, normally responsible for programs such as the Police and Citizens Youth Club and Fit for Life ‘where they engage with some kids that we can see are probably heading down the wrong path,’ Chief Inspector Kehoe says.
But it’s the police horses who are the most popular with Schoolies, the chief inspector says.
‘They love talking to the mounted police officers, getting some selfies with them,’ he says.
‘Sometimes the horses don’t like it after about a hundred pats for the day but the police from the Mounted Unit really love coming up here.
‘They always say to me how good a time they have up here and they’re a terrific resource for us to have.’
The official Byron Bay Schoolies police operation is to run from this Thursday 24 or November until Monday 4 December.
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