London school to be policed full time


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In a bid to crack down on juvenile crime, police officers are due to be stationed full time in south London state secondary schools. The scheme is due to start in September but a pilot scheme is currently running Southwark - the borough in which 10 year old Damilola Taylor was stabbed to death while walking home from school.

The move is designed to support staff and pupils and not to intimidate anyone, as Chief Superintendent Rod Jarman, commander of Southwark borough, points out, ‘It’s not a case of putting officers in schools to search for weapons and drugs - it’s supporting the staff in a way that’s appropriate for young people. We’re not getting into an American model of security arches and security guards and police officers standing next to them. Our officers will be providing a police service to young people who are vulnerable and having crime committed against them. We’re trying to create a safe place for people to go to school.’

Funding from the scheme is being made available via the government’s eight hundred million pound Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. Other government schemes which have been launched to fight the increase in juvenile crime over the past few years include a thirty million pound ‘On Track’ campaign designed to help prevent particularly vulnerable children aged 4 to twelve from getting involved in crime, and a thirteen million pound ’Youth Inclusion’ programme aimed at cutting down truancy and exclusion in schools.

As part of its election platform, the Conservative party is promising to create 1,000 secure training places for young offenders, aged 12 - 15, as an alternative to probation and community service. Under the scheme the children would receive a flexible sentence, linked to and influenced by their academic achievements. In other words, good results would secure an early release. Shadow Home Secretary, Anne Widdecombe, calls the current scheme ’farcical’, pointing out that children ’come back laughing from the court.’ She sees a crying need for constructive change, saying, ‘The message that the criminal justice system sends to children at the moment is do anything you like. There’s a huge amount of anti-social behaviour and criminality committed by 12-15 year olds. We’ve got to nip it in the bud.’

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