I am the National Police Chief Lead for the policing of Children and Young People. One of the first actions that I took on taking on this role 3 years ago was to develop a National Child Centred Policing Strategy. We have a National Action Plan and forces are working on implementing it.
One of the key areas of work that I am leading on, is how we engage with young people, especially in the digital space. We recently undertook a piece of work to consult with young people as to how they would like us to do that. We had a fabulous response with over 5000 surveys completed and we spoke face to face with over 100 young people. 56% told us that they wanted us to engage with them face to face in their schools and colleges and 76% told us that they wanted us to have a presence in social media, so that they could come to us when they wanted help or advice.
We are working on a way to achieve this, we are very aware of the importance of social media in young people’s lives and we will be exploring ways to reach young people in this space. Being kind to each other and treating people with respect is essential to building a cohesive community and the police have a role in supporting people when things go wrong.
I am delighted that I have been asked to sit on the panel and answer questions from concerned parents. Good parenting is the essential factor in keeping young people safe online and I welcome the opportunity to support you in any way that I can from a policing perspective.
