New Zealand police officer drops in for a visit

A POLICE officer from New Zealand was so impressed with the work Cheshire Police Safer Schools Team does with their local schools she made the 11,633 mile trip to find out more.
The Safer Schools Team were joined by Terri Middleton, a Senior Constable from Greymouth, a town on the west coast of South Island.
Terri works in a prevention role in partnership with schools and made contact several months ago having visited Cheshire Police’s website and discovered the engagement work the Safer School Youth Partnership Team (SSYP) were doing with schools and young people in the area.
She was awarded funding through the Woolf Fisher Police Fellowship to visit international counterparts to learn about school lockdown procedures, find out about resources delivered to students and observe how effective strategies are implemented.
She will report back on her findings when she returns to New Zealand.
Having spent a day with the Cheshire SSYP Team Terri said: “I found the whole day really informative. It was interesting to hear how the Police Community Support Officers play an important early contact role in youth engagement, as that role doesn’t specifically exist in New Zealand.
“I can see how the regular meetings allow the team to share ideas, reflect on previous incidents and generally support each other to make sure youths are educated and supported in the most effective ways was very useful.
“Taking part in the collaboration meeting with the Complex Youth and SSYP Team in the afternoon allowed me to get a better understanding of how Cheshire are working hard to prevent young people from entering the criminal justice system
“It’s reassuring to know that although we are on the other side of the globe there are so many shared ways that young people are being safeguarded.”
Cheshire Police Youth Engagement co-ordinator PC Amy Fletcher said: “It was an absolute pleasure to host Terri, who is a very experienced officer. It was interesting to find out about similar approaches but also new ideas which will be helpful in future to myself and the SSYP Team.
“It was fascinating to learn about the vast area and huge number of schools that Terri has to cover and how she overcomes those challenges to engage with her community. I am hoping for a reciprocal visit but I think there is a queue of people wanting to be involved if any trip does go ahead.”