Summary
“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 andexpectations. In these situations, young people will be less inclined to report crimes and theirown victimization to the police, provide intelligence, and participate in the criminal justicesystem. This study is intended to provide a critical appraisal of young people’s perceptions ofPolice 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 relatedissues. Community policing is a well-known policing philosophy, particularly for repairing police-public relations through engagement and problem solving. The findings demonstrate thatdespite the fundamental benefits associated with community policing, conventional methodsof engagement and problem solving have failed to reach out to young people who are,nevertheless, particularly enthusiastic about collaborating with the police. However, whilstthe vast majority of young people are positive about getting involved in policing, there areimportant variations within young people in their perceptions and attitudes towards thepolice. Young ethnic minorities in general, blacks in particular, were passive and reluctant tocollaborate with the police due to their experiences of stop and search and other repercussionassociated with the law enforcement style of policing. A lot of these problems can be subsidedby diverting police resources to community policing, but there are going to be strong financial,organizational and cultural challenges.”—Page ii.