Meet the officer helping keep young people away from crime

Meet Amie Whitehouse.

 

She’s one of our Schools and Early Intervention officers and it’s her role to work with young people and help them stay away from a life of crime.

 

PC Whitehouse has worked in policing for over two decades, but she now spends her weeks working alongside young people to help them make the best choices they can.

 

Based in the Gedling area, Amie looks after 12 schools and hundreds of students in schools and colleges.

 

She’s a school's first point of call when a child needs some help or is hanging out with the wrong crowd and getting in trouble with the police.

 

“I’m really passionate about my role because I believe intervention work with young people is a far better outcome for everybody in communities, rather than getting children into the criminal justice system and sanctioning them formally,” Amie explained.

 

“Day to day I’m out visiting schools and speaking with my designated safeguarding leads to find out how I can help and support them.

 

“Working with the schools I get to know the children personally and can help with any intervention work to help avoid children getting into the criminal justice system.

 

“If I can help a young person who’s got involved with the wrong crowd to see that they’re making the wrong choices and that a life of crime isn’t the right way to go about things, then I know I’ve done my job.

 

“I’m really passionate about what I do and helping young people alongside my colleagues. We’ll plan events with the students, speak to them about a career in policing, or show them firsthand a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it’s like at some of our stations.

 

“The best part of the job is working with teenagers who are absolutely hilarious even when they’ve got themselves into a little bit of bother.

 

“It’s really rewarding to be able to get in there and work with them by having those conversations and hopefully changing their outlook on life, to help them make good decisions rather than poor choices.

 

“I’ve worked with a young person in one of my schools before who was really struggling.

 

“He was potentially getting involved in gang activity and drug dealing, but between myself and our youth outreach team we’ve really started to make a difference with that young person, and we’ve got some really productive work we’ve been doing to steer him away from that life of crime.”

Sergeant Kerry Hall, who works in our Citizens in Policing department, said: “I'm really proud of all of our School and Early Intervention Officers who work hard all year round supporting young people, school staff, partners and officers across the whole county.

"Their work engaging with and educating young people on a variety of topics is vital in preventing crime and building trust and confidence in policing.“