17. Community reflations

The Metropolitan Police Service has always believed that the re­lationship between the police and the public it serves is of great im­portance. To this end in 1968 a specific branch, now called the Com­munity Affairs and Crime Prevention Branch, was set up at New Scotland Yard.

The Community Affairs and Crime Prevention Branch has re­sponsibility for community and race relations, youth affairs, school crime prevention involvement and youth and community projects. The Branch also promotes partnerships with outside bodies and organisa­tions working together to prevent crime and it provides information on crime prevention.

The community liaison officer

Much valuable work can be and is being done at Scotland Yard, but the overall local responsibility for community relations lies with the officers serving on the Division of the Metropolitan Police Dis­trict. For each local authority area there is a Chief Inspector or Su­perintendent solely responsible for this aspect of police work - he or she is known as the Community Liaison Officer (CLO). The CLO is also in charge of the Youth and Community Section.

The activities of the CLO will depend to a considerable extent upon the nature of the local

community. He or she has four main functions. He encourages and coordinates activities between the police and the rest of the community; he tries to ensure that all mem­bers within the community know him and understand his liaison role; he makes sure local police officers are aware of community prob­lems and how they can help to solve them; and he has overall super­vision of the Youth and Community Section.

The CLQ organises visits to primary and secondary schools. These visits are a vital part of any community relations programme. The importance of contact between the police, teachers and school chil­dren cannot be overstressed. Talks and demonstrations are given on a variety of subjects such as the role of police in society, criminal law, road safety and the citizen’s rights and duties.

Visiting schools can help to reduce friction between police and young people. In the atmosphere of the classroom and with open discussion, children get the chance to meet police officers without confrontation. This enables children to realise police officers are not impersonal figures of authority.

School children are not the only people who receive talks from police officers. The CLO arranges talks by himself, and other offic­ers, to many interested organisations who have asked for a talk by a police officer. Examples of such groups are parent/teacher associa­tions, church groups, youth clubs, tenant associations, organisations representing ethnic minorities and many others.

The more groups the CLO can meet the more the local police can become aware of the needs of the local community. The CLO is therefore only too ready to respond to the many invitations he re­ceives.

The CLO does not restrict his activities in this field merely to dis­cussion. He actively involves himself by sitting on numerous commit­tees, providing a police input into areas ranging from the management of youth clubs to non-accidental injury to children. In different areas of London, CLOs have involved themselves with schemes for unem­ployed youths, local housing development schemes to minimise van­dalism, supporting victims of crime and providing links with those who for various reasons have become alienated from the rest of the community.

The other important function of the CLO is supervision of proce­dures for dealing with young offenders. The main purpose is to examine juvenile crime more closely and, if possible, to prevent a child being saddled, at an early age, with a Criminal Record.