Back to school for Yorkshire officers

Twenty-five North Yorkshire officers returned to school recently for two days of training at Boroughbridge High School.

Safer Neighbourhood Officers from Richmond, Craven and Harrogate Districts spent their time learning about how to effectively work with children, young people and their parents.

The familiarisation days, organised by the Western Area Community Safety Team, aimed to make officers aware of how to plan and deliver educational interventions around subjects like domestic violence, drugs, bullying and anti-social behaviour, as well as what law there is available to them to deal with children and parents.

There was input from the County Council's educational social workers on truancy, the Crown Prosecution Service on Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs), Acceptable Behaviour Contracts (ABCs) and Parenting Orders. Sgt Geoff Crocker, head of the Western Area Community Safety Team, said, "We are very lucky to have some excellent schools in the area and our emphasis on Safer Neighbourhoods has to include work supporting and working closely with those schools.

It is therefore important that our officers have the requisite skills to reach out to young people and make sure we always get our messages across clearly and effectively." The Police Officers will mirror the school day, taking break and lunch times with the pupils.