Community policing and young people: a critical insight into young people's perceptions in Leicester

The repercussions associated with young people's exclusion from policing can be detrimental. The police will lack a basic understanding of young people s problems, needs and expectations. In these situations, young people will be less inclined to report crimes and their own victimisation to the police, provide intelligence, and participate in the criminal justice system. This study is intended to provide a critical appraisal of young people s perceptions of Police and Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and community policing in Leicester, in an effort to delineate the implications of their exclusion from local policing and crime related issues. Community policing is a well-known policing philosophy, particularly for repairing police public relations through engagement and problem solving. The findings demonstrate that despite the fundamental benefits associated with community policing, conventional methods of engagement and problem solving have failed to reach out to young people who are, nevertheless, particularly enthusiastic about collaborating with the police. However, whilst the vast majority of young people are positive about getting involved in policing, there are important variations within young people in their perceptions and attitudes towards the police. Young ethnic minorities in general, blacks in particular, were passive and reluctant to collaborate with the police due to their experiences of stop and search and other repercussion associated with the law enforcement style of policing. A lot of these problems can be subsided by diverting police resources to community policing, but there are going to be strong financial, organisational and cultural challenges.