Art Imitates Life

I caught part of the TV police drama ‘The Bill’ a couple of weeks ago. The plot involved a policeman prowling the corridors of a secondary school. It contained scenes of him sitting in his in-school office, a room set up specially for the police somewhere within the school.

“It’s no wonder we don’t usually watch this,” said I to the wife, “when they have farfetched storylines like this one!”

All I can say is, sorry ITV, I got that one wrong!

A survey has suggested that almost half of secondary schools in England have a dedicated police officer. There are more than 5,000 schools in Safer School Partnerships with the police, including 20% of primary schools. They are placed there to ‘tackle bad behaviour, cut truancy and build a relationship between youngsters and the police.’

When I was at secondary school, over fifty years ago, the ultimate deterrent was either the cane or a home visit from the ‘school board man’.

Parents were the ones that taught their progeny right from wrong, the police were there to prevent crime.

Now it seems that the overworked police force (via the council tax payer) has been saddled with both jobs!