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227
Study NT Police Service School-based Program
That the Northern Territory Police Service School-based Program be studied by other Police Services and that the progress and results of the program should be monitored by those services.
It's confusing — they [police] can be friendly, but they won't be your friend if you commit a crime, they will charge you. Ultimately their role is law enforcement and placing police in schools creates a conflict between law enforcement and the social aspect of school.
If the aim is to develop trust between police and young people, this would be better achieved through police being better trained to interact with young people like de-escalating conflict, unconscious bias and understanding the ages and stages and impact of trauma.
Aboriginal Justice Caucus Assessment
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) considered the Northern Territory Police Service School-based Program a useful way to bring about better understanding and relations between police and young people. Recommendation 227 intended for police services in other jurisdictions to study the program to inform similar approaches to enhance relationships between police and Aboriginal young people.
From the 1970s to early 2000s, Victoria Police officers routinely took part in sports clubs and hosted Blue Light Discos. Police Youth Liaison Officers regularly visited schools. The formal Police Schools Involvement Program ended in 2005, although officers continued with informal visits at the discretion of local stations.
Victoria Police introduced the Schools Engagement Model in 2021 which aims to build trust and confidence in police, support schools to promote safety messaging, and identify opportunities to prevent harm before it occurs. The SEM features community engagement with school communities (e.g. school sporting events); programs for students (e.g. cyber safety and road safety programs); focused programs for at risk students and focused interventions in response to serious incidents.
We determined that action taken aligned with the intent of Recommendation 227 as Victoria Police completed a literature review of police school-based programs across Australia as part of the development of their Schools Engagement Model in 2021. This literature review included the Northern Territory Police Service School-Based Program.
There is a clear link between the action and the outcome with the results of the NT program and others outlined in Victoria Police’ ‘School-Based Police Program Review – May 2019’ report which was provided to the AJC Project Team. Victoria Police stated that they will continue to review updates on the program, as they become available. However, we considered Recommendation 227 to be of little relevance to Victoria as most aspects of the recommendation no longer apply.
This recommendation doesn’t have much relevance in Victoria. We’ve got other things in place like Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers, Police Aboriginal Liaison Officers, and police engagement through events and activities where we ask them not to wear a uniform. We don't really want them in schools.
(Chris Harrison, Co-chairperson, AJC)
We feel that further efforts to implement this recommendation will not improve Aboriginal justice outcomes and acknowledge the range of competing perspectives on the impact and value of police school-based programs (captured in the outcome and community view sections above).
Priority for Further Work:
Low
Relevance and potential impact | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Low (0-2) | Moderate (3-4) | High (5-6) | |||
Extent of action taken and evidence of outcomes | High (5-6) | ||||
Moderate (3-4) | |||||
Low (0-2) | |||||
Background
The Northern Territory Police Service School-based Program contributed to teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and other students about the function of police in society, laws of the community and the community aspects of policing. The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody felt this program was worthy of study in other places in Australia.
Actions Taken Since Last Review
From the 1970s to early 2000s, Victoria Police officers were routinely part of sports clubs, while dedicated youth-liaison police officers went to schools, formed a ‘lecture squad’ that regularly visited primary schools, and hosted Blue Light Discos. The last formal program for police in schools ended in 2005, although officers continued with informal visits at the discretion of local stations.
Victoria Police
In 2023, Victoria Police assessed Recommendation 227 as fully implemented noting:
Victoria Police introduced the Schools Engagement Model (SEM) in 2021. The SEM provides a framework for positive engagement, including a resource for police promoting considerations of cultural safety for Aboriginal young people.
A literature review of police school-based programs across Australia was conducted as part of the development of the SEM, including the Northern Territory Police Service School-Based Program. Results of the program were monitored through review of the ‘School-Based Police Program Review – May 2019’ report. Victoria Police will continue to review further updates on the program, as they become available.
Impact
Outputs
Victoria Police
Victoria Police noted that development of the Schools Engagement Model involved consultation with a broad range of agencies, including the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc (VAEAI). Additionally, the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) and Victoria Police Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers (ACLO) were consulted in preparation of a resource designed to support police engagement with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal young people, when visiting schools.
Outcomes
ABC News – Victoria Police looking to relaunch schools program in plan to bolster community ties
From a newspaper article written at the time Victoria Police launched the Schools Engagement Model; experts were split over whether bolstering Victoria Police presence in schools would build community relations or be a worrying intervention by the police force.
Criminologist
Criminologist Richard Evans said building relationships between Victoria Police officers and schools was an old idea, but a good one:
It has borne happy dividends over the years, and this is particularly true in schools in disadvantaged areas where students are among potential young offenders…Overall, they've been a good thing and served to break down the suspicion and distrust between at-risk youth and police.
Dr Evans said having police in schools could change the image of the force, but there were different ways to do so. In particular, he advocated for an emphasis on female officers and officers from minority communities when the program was relaunched.
Very much one of Victoria Police's issues is it is very white bread. It tried to recruit from migrant and other minority communities without a great deal of success.
Justice academic
Justice expert Rick Sarre from the University of South Australia said bringing police into schools could encourage more police reporting. ‘It's trying to engage young people with police in order to open up the lines of communication,’ he said.
Ninety-nine per cent of police solving crime is when they have information from the public . . .So if you haven't got those lines of communication because people think the police disrespect them or are nasty, communication breaks down, and then police struggle so they have to do things like stop-and-search.
Professor Sarre said the strategy could change how people, particularly teenagers, perceive the police. The police in schools program was pulled when the police began to be perceived as too friendly and when crime was seen as ‘out of control’. In turn, that led to officers ‘being seen as unapproachable, nasty and racist.’
But recent high profile court cases in the United States involving police brutality coupled with the Black Lives Matter movement in Australia and overseas had likely pressured Victoria Police into switching tact once again. ‘It's a bit of a public relations exercise,’ he said.
Pilot program
A pilot program running in schools throughout the state was expected to be included in the initiative. Blue EDGE [which stands for education, develop, grow, empower] is a health and fitness program run by the Blue Light Foundation and Victoria Police that sees officers volunteer two mornings a week to take part in fitness training and a group breakfast alongside students.
Corio's Northern Bay College is the only school that's part of the pilot in the Geelong region and although it had a rocky beginning, teachers and police officers say it's been a huge success that's had profound impacts on students' lives in and outside the classroom.
After four months, they say students have created a trusting relationship with the officers and the program has come a long way since it started. ‘From day one to now, the relationship has completely changed,’ Leading Senior Constable Spalding said.
Kids' perception of us as police members was not good, because that's how they've either been brought up, grown to know through the media…But now, they're actually getting that police are real people.
Police say the trust these kids have in the officers has extended beyond the schoolyard.
These kids need to know we're not just about enforcement. They can come to us for advice and to learn life lessons. They can come to us for help.
Community Views
Nerita Waight
Schools need to be a safe space for Aboriginal children, and that’s not possible with police in classrooms threatening to treat every behavioural issue as a criminal offence. Victoria is gradually recognising that police are not the answer to every social problem and reducing police involvement in the response to public drunkenness or mental health issues. Behavioural issues in school are no different, and putting police in classrooms would be a huge step backwards. The Government condemned the idea of police in schools when it was proposed by the Opposition in 2018, and they should do the same today. Victoria Police should be responsive to the Aboriginal community’s suggestions as to how to build a relationship, rather than unilaterally deciding on a course of action that can only be described as self-serving.
If Victoria Police want to improve trust and relationships with the Aboriginal community, it should focus on addressing systemic racism within the institution, encourage and support calls for independent and robust oversight of police, support the calls to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, and implement the relevant recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
Anoushka Jeronimus
It's confusing — they [police] can be friendly, but they won't be your friend if you commit a crime, they will charge you. Ultimately their role is law enforcement and placing police in schools creates a conflict between law enforcement and the social aspect of school.
If the aim is to develop trust between police and young people, this would be better achieved through police being better trained to interact with young people like de-escalating conflict, unconscious bias and understanding the ages and stages and impact of trauma.