STUDENTS from Lord Williams’s school, in Thame, took the opportunity to let the local police authority know how they felt about policing in the town, and revealed some surprising statistics.
Among their major concerns about public safety were people being drunk and rowdy, and people being insulting or intimidating towards them.
The majority of them said that they knew their local PCSOs (Police community Support Officers) and saw them around the town ‘often’.
When asked how safe or unsafe they felt during the day time, 46% said, ‘fairly safe’ and 26% said, ‘very safe.’ Around 6% said they felt ‘unsafe.’
When it came to after dark however, 33% said that they felt ‘very unsafe’ with 19% feeling ‘fairly’ safe. When asked where, particularly they felt unsafe, individual pupils replied: the Co-op alley, when the fair is in town, passing pubs and the Churchill Crescent play area and Pearce Way.
Neighbourhood Sergeant, Chris Hazell, told the students that that he and his officers were aware of some of these areas and targeted areas where young people are likely to be and want to help make them feel safer. He added that in fact, there had been no incidents at the fair this year despite a lot of rumours before hand.
He told the pupils that it was important that they took sensible precautions about where they went and the route they took, by for instance not going around alone late at night and especially not going to places like Cuttlebrook at night alone.
Almost half of the pupils present said that they had been cyber-bullied, with one of them suggesting that that it was easier to bully peope on-line than face-to-face.
The advice was to stop communicating with the ‘cyber bully’ immediately and to tell someone about it straight away.
When asked if they thought the police understood the problems of young people in South Oxfordshire, almost half (47%) said that they did not. “They do not appreciate,” said one pupil, “that we feel intimidated by large numbers of ‘Chavs’ standing around and that it is difficult for us to talk to the police about what worries us when we are in groups.”
They agreed that an anonymous text or email contact would be useful. They did not think that a drop-in box for anonymous comments at the town hall for example, would be used.
When asked if they thought they were treated fairly, the highest number of them voted “No,” feeling that they were judged by their social group or the clothes they wear. One of the pupils complained that some of them were searched by the police every Friday night in Elms Park.
It was explained by Sgt Hazell, that the reason for the searches was that Elms Park is a priority of the NAG (Neighbourhood Action Group) because of anti-social behaviour associated with under-age drinking and drug taking, which was being tackled. “We want to make it safer for everybody,” he explained, “so local officers will search people if there is any suspicion of criminal activity.”
The pupils were reminded that they would find a leaflet describing their rights about Stop and Search, and that they could challenge officers if they felt those rights were being abused.
On the questions of alcohol, 64% admitted that they did drink alcohol ‘sometimes’ with over half (52%) saying that they got it from their parents. 21% said that their parents gave it to them to take out, against 79% who said that they did not.
On the question of committing a crime, the pupils were more-or-less split down the middle as to whether a crime against a big business was less serious than a crime against an individual.
The final questions were to do with how much care the pupils took when they were out-and-about. 69% said that they did not think about, whilst 25% replied ‘lots’ and when asked how? they said that they always took their mobile phones with them and made sure they went out with friends.
Finally, the pupils expressed their feelings about comments in the press that the police should not ask young people about how they should go about Community Policing.
Their responses?
“Do not underestimate kids. Many crimes are committed by young people and so we understand what’s behind them very often.”
“We do know what we are talking about and should be appreciated more.”
“We understand the problems as well as living in the community.”
“We are people too; we’re just a bit smaller.”
Hazell Bell, Chair of the Oxfordshire Police Committee, who organised the meeting, said: “These events are an opportunity for young people to influence policing and community safety at a local and Forcewide level by talking to the people who really can influence change in the Thames Valley Police Force and at South Oxfordshire District Council.
“All the information, data and comments from the young people who attended this ‘Have your say’ meeting, and that from the recent, on-line questionaire, will be fed back to the school and will influence the Police Authority’s strategy for the coming year and influence local initiatives including safety strategies for young people.”