The police really are getting younger.

I discovered that when I dropped in at Arbourthorne Community Primary school to see the beginning of a new initiative – Mini Police.

This is in part of Sheffield that would probably be called ‘challenging’. It has seen some serious violence there this year – which impacted hard on the community and the children – and there are many families facing a tough time financially. Seventeen different languages are spoken by youngsters at the school.

The head and staff were very impressive in their commitment and dedication, and their understanding of the educational challenges all this presents. The school itself was a delight to be in – bright and cheerful, but also serious and purposeful.

I was there to see what the Mini Police project is, and I was joined by the two local Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) – who were familiar figures to pupils and staff.

Those taking part meet for an hour several times a year with a police staff member from the Lifewise centre at Hellaby. They received a uniform – a police baseball cap and tabard – and a notebook in which they wrote about what they learnt in the session. The scheme extends over two years and during that time they will hear about the work of the police and how they, their parents, families and friends, can all work together to make the community a better place. They will also get to see the horses and the dogs! I presented them with their ‘Oath of Office’ which they took home.

Above all, they will learn to see the police as people who are there to help, support and safeguard them. These are important attitudes towards the police which we need to establish as early as we can in young lives. We cannot assume that this is how all the adults in their lives feel about the police, and sometimes families come from countries where the police are to be feared and avoided.

The plan is to have Mini Police in many other schools across the county and I am happy to support that.

How violent are we?

When a really serious crime happens, particularly a homicide, it shakes a community and sometimes the nation. In recent months we have all been shocked by the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. And, more locally, we have been stunned by the murder of three young children and the mother of two of them just over the county boundary in Killamarsh, and the murder of a young Nigerian man in Sheffield city centre in daylight hours.

These are terrible crimes, plunging families into grief and disturbing the peace of mind of many others. It made me wonder whether the number of homicides in the county was increasing or whether it only seems to be so. (You might care to pause for a moment and ask yourself the same question.)

I asked my staff to look at the statistics for homicide. (Homicide includes murder, manslaughter and infanticide.)

The statistics are provisional and may change as investigations progress, but what we can say at the moment is that homicide is a very rare crime. In South Yorkshire there are an average of four per quarter of each year. However, even though the levels of homicide are low, South Yorkshire has rates above the national average. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average in England and Wales was 10.1 per million of the population between April 2020 and March 2021. We were 11.4.

But there were other figures that both surprised me and gave me some concern.

Victims of homicide are mainly male (around two thirds) while perpetrators are overwhelmingly male – almost 90% – which highlights male violence against women and girls.

The age of victims I found disturbing. From April 2020 to March 2021, the age group 18-21 had the highest number of homicide victims. There were no victims below this age group and none directly above it until the 26-29 year old and other older age groups.

Just as worrying were the ages of suspects with almost half aged 14-25.

So the figures show that homicide remains a rare crime. But it does significantly impact on younger people, whether as victims or suspects. In both cases that represents either young lives lost or young lives thrown away. We have to get serious about reducing violence in our communities, not least for the sake of rising generations.

Test pilots

No pilot scheme ever fails. At any rate, if they do, we don’t hear anything about them.

And we can see why they always succeed.

(A pilot is a small-scale project or limited trial to see whether something should be done more widely. One or two police forces, for instance, might pilot something on behalf of all others.)

Pilots succeed because: the original conviction that something will work will be based on some insight – it’s not a total stab in the dark – and those undertaking the pilot will be enthusiastic and committed, going the extra mile, and so on. But whether something should then be rolled out more generally needs a further test. It is not whether the pilot works but whether it works when undertaken by those who are not the initial enthusiasts but those for whom this will just be part of their daily work, business as usual. Pilots always work; but it doesn’t follow that the general roll out will.

Over my time as PCC I have heard about many pilots. Some have indeed been rolled out more widely and proven successful. But others have seemingly vanished. Often this is because resources were not available for them to be replicated more generally. Pilots are usually funded by one-off grants but for other forces to adopt them may well mean having to identify money from within an existing budget – and that means taking resources from something else. It is not enough for an innovation to work, it has also got to be recognised as a better use of scare resources than some existing commitment – a point that MPs in particular don’t seem to appreciate when they write to tell me about something that was trialled in some other force and had good results: ‘So why aren’t you doing this in South Yorkshire?’

But I now realise that what is piloted can disappear for that other reason – introducing new practices into any organisation also needs committed people, enthusiasts, believers, to make them work and have them accepted. Every innovation needs a bit of passion around it, even as it is rolled out.

Perhaps especially as it is rolled out.

Stay safe and well.