Rethinking policing
Alongside its members and children and young people, the AYJ is working to influence policy to prevent a rise in the criminalisation of children. The AYJ’s goal is to ensure any policing response to children recognises vulnerability and victimisation, and prioritises the safeguarding of children’s rights, health, and wellbeing.
What’s the problem?
The police are a crucial gateway to the youth justice system and how they interact with children and respond to their behaviour is critical. This is particularly important at a time when the government is recruiting over 20,000 new police officers, when children’s welfare needs are increasing, and support services are under severe pressure. Police may increasingly bethe first point of contact for a growing number of vulnerable children.
The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) strategy for policing children sets out key principles–that children should be treated as children, be heard, respected and engaged with positively, have their vulnerabilities and circumstances identified, understood and responded to, and be kept out of the criminal justice process wherever possible. Yet many children and young people feel police are discriminatory, untrustworthy and inconsistent. Police increasingly occupy what should be safe spaces for children, such as schools, and the new Serious Violence Duty will further increase police encroachment on children’s lives. Police use of diversion has improved in recent years but remains inconsistent and inequitable.
There has been an erosion in neighbourhood policing. Trust and confidence in police is damaged, particularly amongst overpoliced communities, and particularly in light of recent tragedies and scandals such as the murder of Sarah Everard, the case of Child Q, recruitment vetting failures, and multiple forces placed under special measures.
What needs to change?
The NPCC strategy, principles, and best practice framework on child-centred policing demonstrate positive ambitions, but to what extent is it operationalised? Where does responsibility and accountability lie for making sure it is embedded across police? Do the NPCC standards include everything they need to? It is difficult to see how policies that have been pursued by recent governments and have been increasing such as stop and search, strip search, use of force, police in schools, and the decrease in neighbourhood policing, could possibly be child-centred. Changes to policies and regulations are needed to ensure police resources are directed towards more positive engagement and activities that help to safeguard children.
Why now?
Thousands more police officers on the streets at a time where children are increasingly vulnerable and unsupported creates a huge risk, but a large intake of new officers is also a potential opportunity to influence their focus. Work needs to be done now to ensure the priority for all police is safeguarding and supporting children, rebuilding relationships, rethinking the use of disproportionate police powers, and addressing police behaviour that is discriminatory and unnecessarily escalates interactions. Recent increased focus on policing due to cases such as Child Q highlights flaws in current police powers, the tension between police acting as a lead agency in safeguarding arrangements yet bringing harm to children, and provide impetus for action.
Why the AYJ?
AYJ members working with children are very concerned about police interactions with children. They have a wealth of experience and expertise shedding light on issues across police practice, what policies and regulations need to change, and what effective responses to children at risk look like. The AYJ is an extensive network, we can build consensus, and bring together organisations at different touch points with police to map and lobby for a reimagined policing model.
