Campus cops

[Gob]

A police presence in schools is not something to be feared, finds Daniel Lambie. It's about breaking down barriers between generations and improving the safety and quality of life for entire neighbourhoods.


The notion of campus cops may still conjure up images of fully armed police officers parading around American schools. Picture students entering schools through full body scanners, and gang members subject to random searches as they walk between classes.

It's a world away from the leafy suburbs of Newton Mearns, nestling in the hills south of Glasgow. But it's here - in Eastwood High School - that I meet the small team of East Renfrewshire's community police.

They explain to me that the service they provide: far from being focused merely on enforcement, is far subtler and deeper rooted. It's about breaking down barriers between generations and different parts of the community, about building a mutual respect that permeates far beyond the school boundaries and ultimately improving the safety and quality of life of entire neighbourhoods.

Colin Laidlaw has been the officer based at Eastwood High School for the past four years. He said: "Our primary objective when we are at school is to ensure everyone is safe. Our presence in school acts as a deterrent and encourages better behaviour. We also play a key role with road safety - ensuring that traffic flows around schools and creates less of a hazard for pupils and pedestrians."

But Marion McCallum, who for the past three years has been based between Woodfarm High School and St Ninians High School, explains that they also play a much more proactive role in the schools where they are present.

"We carry out a number of talks throughout the year - covering a variety of topics including knife crime, legal highs and citizenship. Cyber bullying is a big topic which we spend a lot of time talking to pupils about, too.

"These are not lectures. They are conversations involving ourselves, partner agencies and the pupils themselves. We use real-life examples to bring issues to life in a way that the young people can relate to."

Marion believes that these talks give the pupils a far greater understanding of the legal issues involved, and how the police and other agencies are working to protect communities from the threats they pose. On the flip-side, she feels that the police themselves develop a much better grasp of the issues from the perspectives of the young people.

"It is about building up a mutual respect," said Marion. "This is one of the biggest long-term benefits of our work in schools."

Marion applied to become a campus officer some years ago and finds the work both rewarding and satisfying. She said: "We work with the smaller ones in primary school, but I love working with the teenagers.

"It is a really good opportunity to break down barriers with them and it is also an opportunity to see the more positive side of the police, which I think I am personally better at - the happy, smiley approachable, friendly style in general. I don't always have that, as we have got to have the enforcement occasionally as well."

Breaking down barriers is particularly important in areas where there are different expectations. Gordon Sweeney is based in Barrhead, a town in the west of the county which is less prosperous than those further east. This, he says, brings both challenges and opportunities.

He said: "I have worked in Barrhead for the past five years, so I knew many families and the problems in the area and a lot of the kids. I felt a decent enough connection that I could make a bit of a difference up at the school."

The campus cops' understanding and connection with the local community benefits everyone, giving a broader perspective on specific issues which may not be dealt with properly otherwise. Working with their schools and other agencies, they have a better chance to join the dots.

Gordon explained: "If a pupil is showing behavioural issues, we need to try to understand why. It could be that there has been a family break-up which the school doesn't know about. If it's a domestic incident, we know about that, or, if there has been a bereavement, the social work may know about this. We've then got a better chance of understanding what is affecting this person's behaviour.

"This is another strand of our job - managing and supporting individuals and finding out why they are going through what they are going through."

Marion illustrates how the trust, respect and understanding built up over time can have a deep impact long after school. She said: "The first year I went to Woodfarm, there was a lot of crime reporting, but it has vastly reduced as I am now more experienced in the job and I can look at how we can deal with things in a different way. It's about us trying to keep the kids free of criminal charges and not have them criminalised."

And so we come full circle. From a perception that police in schools are there to deal with crime to an understanding that their presence and influence actually stops crime in the first place.

In a world of Key Performance Indicators and targets, Andy Davies from Mearns Castle High School powerfully articulates the influence he and his colleagues have: "You can't measure prevention."

[Lord Jim]

Hmmm...

That sounds an awful lot like what a very insightful poster on this board said:

I have been gradually coming around on the idea of having on duty cops in the schools...in addition to providing security, I can see other positive roles this could serve to help build better relations between communities and police...

[oldr_n_wsr]

Back when I was in school, it was the janitor/custodian who knew the most about what was going on with the students and their lives.

And I agree, having police in schools is not the "boogey man scenario" that it's made out to be.

[dales]

When I was in HS 1966-70 we didn't have cops but we had a narc.

All the kids knew who he was and avoided him like the plague.

[dgs49]

When I was in High School (a Catholic institution) we had two very large football-coach-type characters who held the title of "Prefect of Discipline." One was a Christian Brother, the other a lay teacher. Although I never saw any corporal punishment administered, one did not want to have to report to the PoD, due to a behavior problem.

[oldr_n_wsr]

In Catholic Grammar school we had Sister Delores aka the mighty midget. At just about 4' tall, she could kick anyones ass (and did).