Revolutionary plan to combat youth crime set for launch

Highland’s joint committee on children and young people will consider a proposal today to create a new service to address youth crime in the Highlands.

The proposal from Bill Alexander, the council’s head of children’s services, is for the appointment of three uniformed police youth co-ordinators to help divert offending young people from further offences.

One officer would work with each of the three council “youth action teams” to support the work being done with those young people who have offended once or twice, to stop that behaviour escalating to more persistent behaviour.

They would identify children coming to the attention of the police for antisocial and offending concerns and work with the young offender and his family and bring agencies together, to ensure a focused approach to preventing further crimes.

It would include work to support the victims of crime, and to encourage reparation for any previous offences.

Mr Alexander said: “This will enable a quicker and more targeted approach. It will also allow social work staff and police officers to work more closely together to prevent youth crime.

“I believe this will be a unique partnership, as nothing quite like it exists elsewhere in Scotland.”

Housing and social work chairwoman Margaret Davidson said: “This is an encouraging initiative.

“The teams have been very successful to date and I believe that the direct involvement of police officers in their work will be reassuring for communities, and can only help further our work to turn young people away from offending.”

Northern Constabulary’s head of operations Chief Superintendent Bruce Duncan said: “We welcome the proposal to fund three additional police officers to form a multi-agency partnership with the council’s youth action teams.

“This complements the extensive work we are doing jointly with partners to address youth crime and would give us further opportunities to progress and develop proactive initiatives, such as youth diversionary activities within our communities across the Highlands.”