Concerns that cops in schools are being used to discipline students

Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

Concerns have been raised about the role of police in some secondary schools – and whether they are being used to discipline pupils.

Caroline Russell, a Green member of the London Assembly, told a meeting of City Hall’s police and crime committee, that she was worried about police being used inappropriately in educational settings.

Dame Lynne Owens, the newly-appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan, said the force needed to be clearer with schools about what officers are there for.

Senior staff at City Hall, meanwhile, insisted there was widespread support for keeping officers in schools.

Ms Russell told the meeting last week: “People have said to me that they feel that police in schools are being used almost to pick up disciplinary matters in schools, rather than taking that broader approach to looking at what’s happening within the community and potentially signposting people to other groups and organisations around the Met.”

She added that there was “a lot of concern about police in schools actually getting some young people connected into the criminal justice system,” rather than acting as a deterrent to crime.

Responding, Ms Owens said the Met needed to be “explicit with schools that we are not there to deal with their disciplinary issues, because if we step into that space there is a very real risk we criminalise children that we wouldn’t have encountered on the streets in that way”.

She also said she wanted to see police in schools, known as Safer Schools Officers (SSOs), better linked up with police in the wider community, known as Safer Neighbourhood Teams, to help tackle, for example, violence or bullying outside the school gates.

Ms Russell referred to a recent report from race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust, which called for SSOs to be withdrawn from schools, as “their presence disproportionately impacts black and minority ethnic communities and fails to support a safer school environment”.

Picture: The Met