Met sets out strategy to protect children from crime
The Metropolitan Police has launched a new strategy to transform Met Police approach to keeping children safe from crime.
The five-year strategy aims to ensure that police officers have the tools, systems and training they need to effectively manage the range of very different ways that children experience crime.
All officers will receive new training in childhood vulnerability and adultification bias. The training will ensure that the force can effectively implement a “Child First” approach while continuing to take tough action where communities or individuals (including children) are put at risk.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “This is a major milestone in our mission to keep children in London safe from crime. It will give officers the training and support they need to recognise vulnerability and safeguard individual children, while ensuring that they can still effectively protect the public from criminal behaviour.
“Importantly, the strategy also recognises what the Metropolitan Police has not always got right in the past: that in policing the line between vulnerability and criminality, we may have sometimes focused too hard on the criminality we can see, not the vulnerability that lies behind it. This does not mean a free pass for childhood criminality, rather it will ensure we are taking a “Child First” approach to policing which takes into account the unique needs of children impacted by crime and brings to justice those who exploit or abuse them.”
London’s Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, said: “I welcome the Met’s new strategy to protect children from crime which will rightly place greater emphasis on recognising the vulnerabilities of young people as well as being able to respond appropriately to criminal behaviour.
“Enhanced training for all officers will help ensure a “Child First” approach is embedded in policing in London – which the Mayor and I have long called for – and will fulfil a key recommendation from the Baroness Casey and HMICFRS reviews.
“This new approach is an important step forward in the Met’s work to keep vulnerable young people in our city safe, rebuild their trust in the police and bear down on anyone who abuses or seeks to exploit them in our communities and online. The Mayor and I will continue to do everything we can to support the Met and key partners to build a safer, fairer London for everyone - where no child is left unprotected.”
Related News
Latest Features
Partners
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |