Wollonong's new police boss will leave it up to his troops and the general public to judge his performance.
Child predators be warned: Wollongong and Lake Illawarra investigators are about to join forces to go after the worst of the worst.
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Superintendent Chris Craner is making the child protection register one of his key focuses as he takes the reins of Wollongong police district.
“I want to form a team with Lake Illawarra to actively target and conduct surveillance and go after them,” the new commander told the Mercury.
His front-foot approach is in line with the style of NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, who Supt Craner has worked closely with for the past 12 months as his chief of staff.
We got 12 of them licences … it stopped the offences but it also gave them job opportunities.
Supt Craner promises to be a leader who doesn’t just “front” the community in times of crisis, but one who challenges people to come to him face to face with grievances.
As commander of Port Stephens, he held regular open meetings with the community and plans to do the same in Wollongong.
At one of those meeting, an 82-year-old man gave him an “oh my God” moment.
“We were all lined up (the senior management team) and he said ‘I’ve got no faith in the cops, I don’t trust you, you won’t turn up, the kids are outside hooning, I’m scared and you’re not helping me’.
“And I said to the whole community, ‘I could get that in an email and just go righto, task someone and not think about it again … But you, in front of me, you look like my dad, you hit me in the heart, saying you don’t trust me.
“‘Hopefully it’s hitting these inspectors in the heart too and they’ve gone ‘oh my God’ like I did.”
Supt Craner doesn’t hold these public gatherings to show his strengths and hide his weaknesses. It’s raw and sometimes ugly, like the time he faced a few disgruntled men who had downed a few schooners.
“If you want to sit there and have a go because we didn’t turn up last week, you can. So we really cop it, but we also explain what we do … what practical measures we take at night, we explain first response, how many cars we’ve got.
“We explain how in the middle of the night we are knocking on doors, we’re dragging little Johnny out to say he’s a suspect for break and enter, where is he? He’s got bail conditions not to be out at night.”
Supt Craner is not just words. The former undercover operative who’s worked in some of the busiest Sydney stations and country commands, has no problems copping the hits physically too.
He’s fought TV personality Mark Bouris in a charity boxing event that didn’t end well – knockout after a disputed punch to the back of the head – but more importantly, he’s thrown himself in the ring against troubled teens who have little respect for the uniform.
During his time up north, he took 10 of the most “in-need” kids out of school, got Woolworths on board to supply them breakfast and then took them into the boxing ring.
”It’s about respectful relationships where the kids had to walk in, look you in the eye and shake hands,” he explained. “If you box with a kid in the morning and then he’s in trouble at two in the morning and he’s about to fight the cops, he looks up and goes ‘I know you, we fought together’.
“At the smallest level that’s a win. Then we’ve got them, we get them jobs … once you’ve got them then you can start rebuilding.”
In Tea Gardens on the Mid North Coast, Aboriginal teens got to know the man behind the police uniform.
They would drive without licences, get caught by the cops, get a ticket their parents had to pay and the cycle would continue. There was no way they would walk into the RTA to get a licence – a task way too daunting.
“So we brought the RTA to the kids,” Supt Craner explained. “Then we got 12 of them licences … it stopped the offences but it also gave them job opportunities.”
The program was extended to the waterways, where hunting oysters was popular among locals. “We got them all boat licences, it was a really good project.”
Supt Craner has caught the attention of politicians for his “think outside the square” and collaborative approach to policing.
When it seemed “all too hard” to get funding and approval for a women’s shelter in Port Stephens, Supt Craner took matters into his own hands.
“The council had a place they said would cost $70,000 … The non-government service women’s agency said it’s not going to work. I said ‘I’ll sort it’. Within two days we’d probably raised about $40,000.
“Those same cops who turn up with their gun belts on at two in the morning turned up with tool belts. We built a women’s shelter.”
Supt Craner said a police station should not be the place of refuge in the middle of the night for victims of domestic violence and their children.
“What message are we sending children if their mother is bashed and ends up in a police station?”
Port Stephens MP Kate Washington described Supt Craner as a boss who earned the respect of his fellow officers because he supported them and led by example.
But Supt Craner doesn’t expect the people of Wollongong to take her word for it. “If I stuff up I want you to call me on it,” he said.
He has big plans to tackle domestic violence and graffiti in the Wollongong command and considers elderly abuse another area that needs a targeted response.
“I want to put together an investigation strategy and assign more staff to look after the elderly,” Supt Craner said.
“We’ve got an ageing population here in Wollongong. I want better engagement with them to try and reduce elderly abuse. They are the vulnerable victims,” he said.
His priority though is looking after his team.
“If I look after the troops, they’ll look after the community. If they come to work and put their life on the line, then I’ll come to work and put my job on the line to support them.”
His approach comes from years on the front line.
“I just take it from my rookie years.
“Most decisions I make I consult, I think back to when I was on the truck, at the sergeant’s desk, what would I think? If I can’t sell a decision to the sergeant then he can’t sell it to the troops and I’ve lost it.”
Supt Craner replaces Supt Zoran Dzevlan who was managerially transferred from Wollongong as a result of an internal investigation.
