Children and Young Persons Policing Strategy – Child-Centred Policing
Details
The National Police Chief’s Council have released their proposals for a child centred policing strategy. The report recognises the importance of diverting children and young people from the criminal justice system (CJS) and proposes a strategy to ensure children are seen as children before anything else in encounters with the police. The strategy is based on three pillars; ‘your trust’, ‘your voice’ and ‘your future’.
As part of these three pillars, the strategy aims to recognise that there is often an offender/victim overlap in youth cases, and that there must be more done to accommodate a child’s age in interactions with the police to build trust, with police consciously keeping an open mind when interacting with children regardless of their physical characteristics or behaviour. There must also be an emphasis on the child’s perspective, both when assessing a situation and in interacting with them.
Finally, the ‘your future’ pillar aims to recognise that child-first policing must be concerned with the future of the child and as such, part of the strategy involves working with partners in education and also the Youth Justice Service to prevent offending and ensure that offences which result in conviction are dealt with proportionately and with the least possible damage to the child’s future.
A Children and Young Person’s Policing Charter is in development and will be used to ensure that the pledges made are regularly reviewed and fit for purpose.
Commentary
The proposal opens with a section called ‘our vision’, which is succinctly summed up as “to create a culture of children-centred policing across the whole of policing in England and Wales”. This is a welcome and necessary development, and it is hoped that the aims set out within this short strategy booklet will materialise, and that forces across the country will take seriously the need for a serious shift in the way that children in the CJS are dealt with, not only to increase trust in policing, but to reduce the impact of arrest, charge and interview on a young person and help to ensure that any trauma caused by contact with law enforcement is minimised. With individual forces, such as the Met, having already published their own strategies, it appears that this is a concerted effort and presents a real opportunity to positively change the way children are dealt with by the police.
Written by
Violet Smart, Doughty Street Chambers