Two Law students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have joined the Leicestershire Police Youth Commission in an effort to improve the relationship the police have with young people in the region.
Jasmin Mohamed and Natasha Collins, who are both LLB Law students at DMU, applied to the scheme and successfully landed the voluntary roles.
The Youth Commission’s main objectives are to help the police regain the respect of young people in the community, educate people about their rights and responsibilities, and to create an effective channel of communication between young people and police.
The next step for Jasmin and Natasha, along with the other young people accepted onto this scheme, which is in just its second year, is to go into their local communities to places such as schools, to speak and engage with young people who have become disillusioned at the role of the police.
“We had our first session recently where we identified some of the key issues that affect young people – hate crime, cyber-bullying, domestic abuse – and now the plan is to go and speak to young people to work closely with them,” Jasmin said.
“It’s about improving the relationship between young people and the police, being a voice for the youth.
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“We plan to give them more information about things like domestic abuse, and what the police are already doing to tackle these issues and we’ll be doing research that we can feedback to the police so that they can better engage with young people.”
Natasha said: “I got a recommendation to apply from my criminal law lecturer because she knew I was interested in domestic issues.
“I’ve been a victim of crime so it’s developing that interest that I already have and where I live in Hinckley the relationship between young people and police isn’t very good.
“I’ve got a 6-year-old and a five-year-old and I think that it’s important for them that the relationship is better.
“It’s also a chance to work with a lot of diverse people, getting their opinions is an important thing to bring to the commission to improve policing.
“Abuse is something not everyone wants to speak about but education is key. Young people might not want to admit but education on these topics is vitally important.”
Posted on Wednesday 5 August 2015