A POLICE OFFICER IN EVERY SCHOOL ; Borough's Amazing Bid to Cut Crime
Posted on: Saturday, 15 October 2005, 18:00 CDT
By DOMINIC HAYES
POLICE officers are to be stationed in every secondary school in a London borough to cut crime and truancy.
Enfield's 17 comprehensives are to have their own police presence by early next year.
It comes amid concern about the state of discipline in schools across the country. Chief Superintendent Simon O'Brien said: "If you think of schools as small villages of about 1,000 people, then it makes sense to have a fulltime officer overseeing that village.
"We know that 30 per cent of crime is committed by young people and we know they are more likely to be young victims of crime." The police will spend an agreed number of hours in school every week, sharing office space with the truancy officers.
Sue Warrington, head of Chace Community School, said: "I can't think of anyone who will not benefit from this scheme."
Money for the scheme comes from the Government's safer schools initiative.
Peter Lewis, Enfield council's director of education, children's services and leisure, said: "This scheme is about building on positive relationships between the police and young people in our borough and is not an issue around pupils' behaviour in Enfield.
"Our schools and standards of pupils behaviour are among the best in London."
Although it is the first borough to have police officers in all its schools, it is not the first scheme of its kind. A total of 160 Met officers have been stationed in 200 of London's toughest comprehensives.
Professor Susan Hallam of London University's Institute of Education said schools with a police presence have seen hundreds of truants return to lessons as a result, reversing the national trend which has seen truancy rates soar to record highs.
Nationally, the number of children "bunking" off school on any given day was 53,400 in the last school year.
Source: Evening Standard; London (UK)
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