Hugh Reilly: Classroom coppers are a force for good

ELLO, ’ello, ’ello, what’s all this then? Ironically, just as Glasgow schools have lost an on-site police presence, Edinburgh council is extending a campus cop initiative.

Following the success of a pilot scheme whereby four education establishments were given a school link officer, all 23 secondaries in the city will now be covered by 11 cops (only police officers with bi-location and, in one instance, tri-location skills, need apply). Lothian and Borders police force will meet the bill.

Thankfully, unlike teachers, the success or otherwise of the thin-bordering-on-anorexic blue line will not be evaluated by analysing an array of largely meaningless statistics. According to those behind it, there will be (unspecified) long term benefits. “A lot of school children never get to see police officers,” said Chief Superintendent Gill Imery. Living in Glasgow, I know how the kids feel. Strolling through the city’s, ahem, Style Mile (Buchanan Street and its immediate environs), cops are conspicuous by their absence, taking the concept of low level policing to its ultimate conclusion.

Perhaps I’m being unfair; after all, the innocent looking homeless man spread-eagled on the pavement could be an undercover, or in his case, under cardboard officer. Occasionally, my heart soars on spotting a hi-vis jacket in the crowd but I am sorely disappointed when, on closer inspection, I discover that what I thought was a uniformed crime fighter turns out to be an indolent street cleaner leaning on a brush for support.

It’s no fun being a bobby on the beat. Most days, it’s the same old, same old, of arresting shoplifters, drug addicts and people stabbing folk because the voice of a sadistic prankster God told them to do it. This would explain why Constable David Miller, liaison officer with Boroughmuir High School is so excited with his new post. “When I joined the force, my favourite part was chasing criminals. Now I get more of a buzz from dealing with young people,” he said. Swapping a dangerous existence that requires the wearing of Kevlar clothing for the life of a glorified yoof worker could not have been an easy decision. Where do we find such men?

Classroom constables will be de facto teachers, educating the cherubs in crime, justice and drugs. Some years ago, when I was teaching in a city school that doubled as a cannabis selling emporium, a visiting policewoman naively passed round samples of illicit substances for the children to gawp at. Within a few minutes, the soft-spoken lady morphed into a shrieking she-devil as she screamed for the immediate return of a block of grass purloined by a kleptomaniac kid. The likelihood of an embarrassing strip-search was such that I felt compelled to surreptitiously ascertain if I’d put on my Calvin Kleins that morning rather my careworn Y-fronts. Luckily, the marijuana mysteriously reappeared.

In my experience, a campus cop is a boon to any school. The PC attached to my last school was very proactive, assisting in the running of The Duke of Edinburgh Award trips and a familiar sight around the school. Once when I was laser-penned in the classroom, he arrived swiftly at my door and forced the light-sabre culprit to identify himself.

Inevitably, some Edinburgh teachers will resent police officers on the premises, bewailing it to be either a sign o’ the times or a dire threat to the authority-figure status that gives a modicum of meaning to their sad lives. These hang’em-flog’em chalkies hanker for the good old days when the job of policemen and women was to sit in panda cars (no mating, mind) and zealously patrol peripheral housing estates with the easy manner of an occupying army. Kids with the temerity to play with a football in the street were kicked up the erse by constable Plod to satisfy vengeful, curtain-twitching, middle-aged complainers. For them, the decline in martinet standards of policing can be traced back to genial Jack Warner of Dixon of Dock Green notoriety who believed guardians of the law should salute the citizenry, whistle tunefully and help old ladies across the road.

Jack may have gone to the police box in the sky but he would recognise modern police thinking that favours de-escalating potentially explosive situations and building communications with the local community. By meeting a police officer regularly, young people will hopefully be more trusting of the police. Let’s be having your support for this policy.