Prevention key to policing of young people

Police are committed to ensuring youth are dealt with in a way that is more likely to reduce re-offending and the need for them to be held in custody.

 

"Policing of children and young people is one of our five key focus areas. It is where prevention of crime starts so we are very mindful of the need to get it right," said Assistant Commissioner Nick Perry.

The joint thematic review of young persons in police detention has been released today by the Independent Police Conduct Authority, the Office of the Children's Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission.

The authors found that last year 213 young people were detailed in police cells for an average of 1.9 days and the indications were that numbers were trending upwards. While the authors noted that detaining young people was unfortunately sometimes necessary it could be a missed opportunity for a more constructive response to a young person's offending. The authors noted a need to focus on prevention and reducing youth offendng as well as identifying alternatives to police detention.

"We have just released our youth policing strategy, our blueprint of policing children and young people, and this sets out how police will increase the protection and safety of children and young people and reduce their presence in the criminal justice system.

"Policing of children and young people does present unique challenges.  We recognise that and our strategy outlines ways that we will ensure we have better training, decision making and auditing processes to make sure we are complying with our own policies and procedures as well as international conventions that New Zealand is part of," said Mr Perry.