PCC’s interactive safety scheme attracts 3000 sign-ups in first 3 months.

More than 3000 school pupils have signed up to a new interactive crime prevention project spearheaded by Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen.

Since the County Durham and Darlington PCC rolled out her Commissioner’s Challenge scheme mid September 2023, just over 3000 young people have signed up from primary schools spanning the length and breadth of the Force Area.

The Commissioner’s Challenge is an interactive educational project aimed at boosting awareness of basic crime prevention techniques that can help reduce crime and the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads and improve personal safety.

Children enrolled in the initiative take part in a host of crime prevention activities including litter picking, property marking of school equipment with UV marker pens and safe road practices to earn themselves bronze, silver and gold badges. The programme is designed to equip the young people with the knowledge and skills they need to make safe choices and avoid harm.

The expansion of the project follows a pilot involving 140 children aged nine and ten from five primary schools in Ferryhill.  

Commissioner Allen said: “I’m absolutely amazed at how fast this scheme is growing and all credit is due to the teachers and children for embracing this opportunity so eagerly and our partners, Durham Agency Against Crime (DAAC), who are delivering the project on my behalf.

“We know from the pilot how valuable this experience will be for the pupils; they will be encouraged to develop their leadership qualities, test their critical thinking abilities, and push their comfort barriers to learn new skills and grow in confidence.

“One of my key ambitions as Commissioner is to encourage greater involvement in local policing from our communities. There is no better place to start than with our young people who will be the lifeblood of our communities in the future. I take my hat off to everyone working so hard to make this project a success.”

West Park Primary School and Reid Street Primary School in Darlington have so far recruited 60 pupils to the scheme while Vane Road in Aycliffe and Brandon Primary in Durham have signed up 58 and 46 pupils respectively.

The project is run across three key safety modules: Keeping Our Family, Friends and Neighbours Safe, Keeping Our Streets Safe and Keeping Ourselves Safe.

Bryan Russell, Executive Manager of Durham Agency Against Crime, said: ‘We are delighted with our start of this exciting project, schools have really embraced the initiative and we hope to have offered all 232 schools this programme by the summer term of 2024. We anticipate this could see over 8000 young people taking part inthis worthwhile education input. We have to thanks the schools for all their support and look forward to attending the award ceremonies they have lined up to celebrate the young people completing the tasks and receiving their certifcates and gold badges.’

DAAC has now employed a full-time coordinator to offer Year 5 pupils in all primary schools a chance to get involved, benefitting around 7,000 students and their families. Upon joining, participants will receive their own personal booklet to complete, a UV pen to security mark their personal items and reward stickers.