St Richard's student addresses top brass police meeting

Hermione Porter, a St Richard's Catholic College student, was invited by Nick Wilkinson, Assistant Chief Constable of Sussex Police, to address the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) South East Region Children and Young People Group.

Nick - also from Bexhill - is Chair of the group. He wanted them to hear directly from young people, to find out how the police could do their job better engaging with children and young people, and Hermione was chosen as spokesperson.

Hermione said: "Nick made me feel very welcome and asked me to share my thoughts and ideas."

Hermione didn't pull any punches. She read the group's 'Children and Young People strategy', listened to the ACPO group's discussions surrounding it and then gave her honest opinion:

"I thought that the Children and Young People's strategy was too complicated. I don't think people my age would be able to understand it, so I suggested that it should be re-written, or an alternative version produced, for young people."

And that's exactly what the regional ACPO Meeting agreed to do.

Hermione said: "I felt really proud when they agreed to take this back to the National Business Area for review."

Hermione also suggested ways to make police officers appear less intimidating to young people:

"We have an officer who attends our school on a regular basis and I like knowing that there's a friendly and recognisable face to speak to. She talks to us about what is right, what is wrong, and what we should do if we ever feel threatened and need help.

"It provides great reassurance and I know that I would feel comfortable talking to her in confidence if I ever needed to."

Finally, Hermione recommended the police re-target their PR and advertising spend to get their message across better to young people:

"The police should use radio stations to promote initiatives like Shadow Crimestoppers to children, because we are more likely to be listening to music than taking notice of billboards and posters."

Miss Cronin, Acting Principal of St Richard's Catholic School said:

"We are very proud of Hermione and her thoughtful ideas for improving relations between the police and young people. We knew Hermione would prepare fully for this conference and that she could be relied upon to represent the views of so many young people.

"We are lucky to have the support of PC Ellis as our Police Schools Liaison Officer as she is skilled in communicating with pupils of all ages and abilities. She makes an excellent contribution to our PSHEE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) programme."

ACC Nick Wilkinson was delighted with Hermione's input:

"It was enlightening to have Hermione as a guest at our meeting and the points she raised reiterates the need for us all to consider the effects our actions can have on the people we serve, and to ensure policing accurately reflects the needs of all the communities we police."

In addition to listening to young people face to face, Nick is keen to find new and better ways of getting them involved:

"This means us actively engaging them and using new tools such as Facebook and Bebo to communicate directly. It's about listening and understanding and then being prepared to police differently so we can reach the youth of today if we want them to be the law-abiding citizens of tomorrow."