Police profiling : Targeting innocent school children

Imagine you send your 11 year old boy to fetch some milk from the local shop. It’s not far, just a five minute walk. He’s gone for more than half an hour and you start to worry . Then you get a knock on the door. It’s the local community worker. She says, "Mary you need to come quickly, they’ve got your boy". "Who, what, where?" Mary stutters in a panic. "The police", the community workers responds, "but don’t worry, he’s just around the corner."

They both arrive to find Mary’s son, arms behind his back, up against the wall sobbing his eyes out. He was being held with another three boys of similar age. Mary pushes past the police. An officer grabs her by the arm, "Who are you?", the officer demands to know. "I’m his bloody mother. Let him go right now!" The boy rushes to his mum, she holds him for dear life. They both weep.

The police tell Mary her son is free to go. They were looking for someone who 'fitted the description' of the four boys. The community worker had witnessed everything and had tried to intervene because she knew the boys from the youth centre. She was informed that if she carried on, she too would be arrested. The community worker, who herself was furious about how the police had man handled and humiliated these very young boys, informed Mary that if she wanted to make a complaint she would be happy to be a witness. Mary looked at her with sad resignation and said, "No, we just want to go home."

Imagine no longer.

This occurred on one of the estates in Brixton. Of course I changed the mothers name. The community worker who witnessed everything informed me and others, during her conversation as to  why many people don’t trust the police, much less collaborate with them.

The police themselves might say, ‘Well, we have a difficult challenge. Certain gangs are using 11 and 12 year olds to ferry drugs around’. And, in part they would be right. The significant problem is of course that time and time again it seems that police activity is driven more often than not by racial profiling, rather than intelligence led. Too many 'fit the description' because they’re Black.

What worries many about the Met’s new 'Gang’ initiative launched yesterday by the Mayor and the New Met Commissioner, is that if it is this type of dragnet approach in ‘crime hotspots’, the result will surely be an increase in alienation and demonisation, alienating of course the very people who could be helping them catch criminals. Incidentally, it’s also worth noting that if you swamp most areas - whether it’s the City of London, Mayfair or Brixton, the levels of arrest and conviction will ensure it becomes a self fulfilling ‘crime hotspot’.

High levels of alienation and high unemployment were seen as critical factors in a hard hitting report into the summer riots in Tottenham.

In terms of solutions, we need policing by consent more than ever. This builds up trust with communities, which ultimately helps them with intelligence led operations.

Finally, the police must demand the Government bring in other Whitehall departments, that cover social care, health, education, and employment if we are to tackle, not just crime, but also those factors that lead to criminality.

Above all innocent children like Mary’s son should not be subject to the shocking humiliation and trauma by a public service that is meant to protect us.

Simon Woolley