Do the Police still do School visits?

[texaxile]

I remember being at Primary School in the 70's we had regular visits from the local Police. They would show us slideshows, talk to us about not playing on building sites (fortunately without the gore fest 1970's videos) and generally be happy to sit in assembly for a Q & A.

We had visits from the Motorcycle Unit and Dog Unit, but weren't allowed to pet the Alsatian, some of us were put in cuffs, shown the old "blow in the bag" breathalyser and allowed to sit in the Police Car etc.etc.

We had the fire Service and Ambulance service visits as well, but the Police came by once every couple of months.

All this worked towards giving us a respect for the Police, and it did a lot to build bridges, Considering that at the time the Council estate upon which I lived wasn't without its problems.

I'm not sure when it stopped, but given that it instilled a respect for the local Officers at the time (I still recall their names), it was actually a very positive thing, because as I grew older, along with my peers, we still grew up with a healthy respect for the Police.

Community Policing seems to have all but disappeared in society today. I'd like to read what people think as to whether community policing and liasons go some way to reducing crime, or if it's pointless in todays society.

[peterperkins]

It def should be going on but those departments have been virtually all disbanded.

It was a good PR and a great way to break the ice with kids.

[vaud]

Yes... well PCSOs... and fire crew visited our primary school. The latter complete with fire engine.

[Strangely Brown]

Yes. Sussex has a dedicated officer, supported by a small group of volunteers, who arranges visits to schools by officers from the specialist teams and departments.

[Sheepshanks]

They were at our village primary school in Cheshire a couple of weeks before Christmas - walking around with the kids telling off parents for stopping in dodgy places and on the kerb.

I came back a couple of hours later and the police car was still there.

[Ffordd Ar Gau]

Yes, they come to arrest the delightful little scroats carrying knives and dealing drugs in the toilets…

[Tom1312]

Some forces still try. I know my force and my old one do lots of youth engagement stuff, either in schools or cadets but most places it falls on the neighborhood policing teams and they are already short and flat out.

I did a visit for my kids school during careers week, quite what they thought I'd be able to explain to a room of 6 years olds quite what an ARV is I don't know, so I just took loads of hats for them to play with and tried to keep up with 30 small children's questions it was great fun.

[texaxile]

Tom1312 said:

Some forces still try. I know my force and my old one do lots of youth engagement stuff, either in schools or cadets but most places it falls on the neighborhood policing teams and they are already short and flat out.

I did a visit for my kids school during careers week, quite what they thought I'd be able to explain to a room of 6 years olds quite what an ARV is I don't know, so I just took loads of hats for them to play with and tried to keep up with 30 small children's questions it was great fun.

The thing is, that kind of engagement does work. My best mate in the 80's was determined to become a Policeman purely due to being allowed to sit on the Police Motorbike and press the siren button. He joined in 88 and to my best knowledge, still serves.

My daughter only had one Police visit to her primary school, despite living less than a mile from Martlesham Police HQ. She is looking at a career in Law in some capacity, hopefully on the correct side of it.

[Bigends]

texaxile said:

I remember being at Primary School in the 70's we had regular visits from the local Police. They would show us slideshows, talk to us about not playing on building sites (fortunately without the gore fest 1970's videos) and generally be happy to sit in assembly for a Q & A.

We had visits from the Motorcycle Unit and Dog Unit, but weren't allowed to pet the Alsatian, some of us were put in cuffs, shown the old "blow in the bag" breathalyser and allowed to sit in the Police Car etc.etc.

We had the fire Service and Ambulance service visits as well, but the Police came by once every couple of months.

All this worked towards giving us a respect for the Police, and it did a lot to build bridges, Considering that at the time the Council estate upon which I lived wasn't without its problems.

I'm not sure when it stopped, but given that it instilled a respect for the local Officers at the time (I still recall their names), it was actually a very positive thing, because as I grew older, along with my peers, we still grew up with a healthy respect for the Police.

Community Policing seems to have all but disappeared in society today. I'd like to read what people think as to whether community policing and liasons go some way to reducing crime, or if it's pointless in todays society.

I used to do all of those as neighbourhood officer back in the 80's and 90's. We used to have a forcewide schools programme. I used to have three junior schools on my patch - used to visit each a couple of times a term. Local Safer Neighbourhood Inspector remembers my talks at his school. Think PCSO's try and visit nowadays. We also arranged station visits with Cubs, Scouts, Guides.

Edited by Bigends on Saturday 6th January 21:38

[Caddyshack]

Quite a few people I knew from school ended up in prison, only one that I can remember was taken away in cuffs by the police whilst at school…not the sort of police visit the OP meant though.


I always enjoyed the Police visits and often they came across very well, almost as if they didn’t mind a bit of naughtiness as long as the line was not stepped over. Firm but fair.

[ScoobyChris]

Remember these at primary school in the 80s when PC Acton came to visit and we were also shown how fingerprinting worked. And yes I was always volunteered to be cuffed

None of my kids have had these at their schools which I think is a great shame.

Chris

[Hugo Stiglitz]

GMP have schools officers (police) and student police officers visit and give talks as part of their development. Its key as it firstly reminds officers the importance of engagement and for the children to feel like they can engage.

[liner33]

A few years ago my sons school would have visits , commonly the message was "Dont be mean to people on the internet" but they also had drugs talks

[snuffy]

Does "Nitty Nora the bug explorer" still visit schools?

[QBee]

My daughter's cub and beaver groups (stop sniggering at the back) really enjoyed their visits to the fire station and police station.
Hopefully those visits did some good in the respect stakes.

Us older generation still do have some respect for the difficult job the police do with limited resources, and wish our politicians and court system would do more to improve their lot, but it's not a job I would want to be doing these days, given the personal violence they have to deal with every day.

[Earthdweller]

Yes they do, certainly in my old Forces anyway

In my last one the secondary schools have a dedicated full time PC allocated to them. It’s a full time role and is quite involved with the staff and particularly the pastoral care team in the school and the juvenile offender team within the Police

A lot of the work involves dealing with crime/incidents within the school or involving students

The PC’s are expected to take leave during school holidays and be in work during term time

They are part of the neighbourhood policing team for the area

Junior schools being far greater in number are the responsibility of the NBO ( Neighbourhood beat officer ) for the beat the school is on and they are responsible for contact and management of the PCSO’s to ensure the schools have regular visits and inputs

Generally the school staff are fully onboard but it really is dependent on the Head teacher as to how much ( if any ) access Police are given

The area I worked in was pretty rough with lots of social issues and very high deprivation so it was in everyone’s interest

One of the PCSO’s would be Santa each year and visit all the schools along with PC Cub ( yes a PCSO/PC in a bear costume ) or Pippa

Beyond that it was always the aim for police to be around the schools continuously and become known to staff, parents and pupils

There were numerous lessons given by police staff around safety, responsibility and awareness etc some of which were quite hilarious particularly in response to questions such as what do you want to be when you grow up

Answers such as “ a burglar like my dad and brothers” or a drug dealer like my brother” were common place!

Visits to the school with vehicles were always popular particularly the riot vans and the dog section never failed particularly with the drugs dogs ( for cuteness, not searches .. although that’s another story )

So certainly in my force, engaging with kids from a very early age was taken seriously but I can’t say all 43 English & Welsh forces plus the PSNI/ScotPol take it as seriously id like to hope so though

[nordboy]

texaxile said:

The thing is, that kind of engagement does work. My best mate in the 80's was determined to become a Policeman purely due to being allowed to sit on the Police Motorbike and press the siren button. He joined in 88 and to my best knowledge, still serves.

My daughter only had one Police visit to her primary school, despite living less than a mile from Martlesham Police HQ. She is looking at a career in Law in some capacity, hopefully on the correct side of it.

I think the police underestimate the effect they can have on some kids in general. And sending PCSO's and reducing or doing away with neighbourhood policing is a massive mistake.

I am now on driver training, One of my students about 3/4 days in asked if I remembered him? Got me a bit worried as I had no idea what he was referring to!! He then went on to say that he remembered me. Turns out, many years ago, I was one of the first on scene to a school bus crash, unfortunately 1 deceased. He was one of the pupils on the bus, he would have been about 11 yrs old.
This was my divisional response days, before traffic beckoned. Me and a couple of colleagues tried to gather, calm and arranged to walk all the very distressed kids away from the scene to a local pub, where details could be taken and them reunited with parents who had started to hear about the crash and attend the scene.

Anyway, he said that he was so impressed by the way the whole incident was dealt with by me/ us, that from that day on, he'd wanted to be a police officer. About 15 yrs later, I was his driver trainer.

[LosingGrip]

nordboy said:

I think the police underestimate the effect they can have on some kids in general. And sending PCSO's and reducing or doing away with neighbourhood policing is a massive mistake.

I am now on driver training, One of my students about 3/4 days in asked if I remembered him? Got me a bit worried as I had no idea what he was referring to!! He then went on to say that he remembered me. Turns out, many years ago, I was one of the first on scene to a school bus crash, unfortunately 1 deceased. He was one of the pupils on the bus, he would have been about 11 yrs old.
This was my divisional response days, before traffic beckoned. Me and a couple of colleagues tried to gather, calm and arranged to walk all the very distressed kids away from the scene to a local pub, where details could be taken and them reunited with parents who had started to hear about the crash and attend the scene.

Anyway, he said that he was so impressed by the way the whole incident was dealt with by me/ us, that from that day on, he'd wanted to be a police officer. About 15 yrs later, I was his driver trainer.

Having a copper who understood me when I got into a fight when I was 10/11 made me want to join as well (long story short...was being bullied, followed home and fight happened. He didn't tell his parents the truth and they called the police, they understood why I did what I did).

I've gone into schools a few times and taken a car for the kids to look at. It's normally due to being friends with a teacher at the school though.

We've got PCSOs who are safer school officers. I'll be honest I've got no idea what they do as when I was on response they never took anything on!

[NikBartlett]

Doubt if they have time or resources these days. Ideally they should just rock up unannounced ( to the pupils ) at assembly one day with the sniffer hounds. For many schools they'll need a couple of paddy wagons on standby. Of course this won't happen because you'll get complaints from parents that their little darlings had been triggered.

Edited by NikBartlett on Sunday 7th January 18:19

[donkmeister]

Happened when I was at primary school in the 90s... I remember asking him if he was allowed to whack criminals in the nuts with his truncheon. He said not, and in a follow up question he told me friend that he wasn't allowed to kick lady criminals in the fanny either.

Around the turn of the millennium at secondary school we had a lady with AIDS come and tell us all about it (very sobering to a teenager especially), and a prison inmate came to tell us all about how he regretted everything and we should keep our noses clean. Of course, being a grammar school he was a well-spoken white collar criminal from an open prison (think he was in for some City trading stuff) rather than a violent nutter from a proper prison.