Police visit

During Project Time on Friday morning, one child, who has been working with a small group of children on exploring police and criminals (cops and robbers), asked me if we could call the police. So, at 10:20 we searched for the phone number on the internet and rang Brunswick Police who said they’d come out after recess! 

So, just over an hour later, two constables came and spent about an hour with us. The first 30 minutes were spent with the whole LC. 

Here it became clear that many Preps had some fantasy view of police developed through television and movies, which distort reality. 

 

Then the constables worked with a small group of children to facilitate their learning in Project Time, for example they developed some examples of paper work that the children could fill in when they arrest people, discussed how to use codes on the radio and when writing, and how to look for clues, such as finger prints. 

 


They explained to us that when they are driving around, they need to write something in their log books every five minutes to be accountable and keep track of their movements. Further, when they arrest someone, they have to fill out 50 pages of paperwork! 

Their visit certainly proved to be a reality check and eye opener for all of us!

Snapshot of the discussion between the constables and the whole LC:

Constables: (Other than dogs) do you know what other animals police have?

- Kittens?

- Tigers?

No. It’s an animal that you can find on farms.

- Cows!

No. We have horses.

Do you know what types of jails we have?

- Metal ones.

- And gold ones! And other colours too, but I can’t remember. But they do have gold ones!

Snapshot of the discussion between the constables and the small group of children:

Constables: “We have to write down everything we do. Sometimes when I meet people I might need to remember their name, address, birthdays or phone numbers so I write them down.”

- I don’t know mine! Mine is so long I forgot!

Police use secret codes to write really fast. We shorten words to make it quicker to write. We have a special room at the station where everything (weapons) is locked away.” Does anyone know what this is (holds up capsicum spray)?

- Poison?

This is capsicum spray, we use it to spray in peoples eyes if they are not co operating. It makes people blind for a few minutes and then it goes away. This helps us to be able to put handcuffs on them if they are not listening, but we don’t use this on kids.

- Will you ever spray kids?

No

- Even when they are bad?

No, never!

We use special codes to write quickly.

C2: arrived at the station

C1: driving

C5: arrived at destination

T1: a task set by the supervisor

C9: police are in trouble, calling for support (this code is hardly ever used)

C4: have stopped a car

C3: Eating

What do you think happens when we pull over a car? Do you think we might need to go over to the window and speak to them?

- Yes, and then they need to give you their money.

 No, we don’t take their money we might just stop and have a chat to them.

(The Constables went on to speak about their ‘tool belt’ and the different things that they kept close to their body. Items such as; radios, batons, handcuffs and a torch were mentioned.)

Does anyone know what we do when we arrest someone?

- You talk to them!

- You put them in jail

Yes, we have a chat to them and something we make sure we say is ‘you are under arrest, you have the right to remain silent, anything you do say may be used as evidence'.

- Do you give them dinner?

Yes we do, and we let them make a call to someone in their family to let them know what’s going on.

- And you call their parents to let you know that you’ve got them!

What else do you think we need to do when we arrest someone?

- You need to see how tall they are

Do you think that we might take their photo?

- No!

It’s really important that we take a photo, because if they did the wrong thing at a shop they might be on the video recording and we can use their photo to try and find them. The next thing that we need to do is to pat their body to se if they have any weapons on them. What do you think we do next?

- take their clothes off

- yeah and take them to jail!

What do you think we might find in their pockets?

- Crow bars. Crow bars are used for breaking in. For Breaking into banks!

- No! they are used for digging!

- No! taking nails out!

 So we take everything out of their pockets and their things are returned to them when they go.

- And you give the money back to the person they stole it from.

- What happens if you leave things behind in an emergency?

That never happens because we always make sure that we have everything we need before we leave the station. Has anyone ever seen a police dog? They aren’t very friendly so you should never ever try to pat a police dog. They use their smell to find the people that have done the wrong thing. They sit in front of the bad person and bark until the policeman comes. If the person moves or runs, what do you think the dog will do?

- It bites!

- The dog runs after them!

That’s right, the dog will bite them. But police dogs will never go after kids. Do you think the dog could help kids?”

- Yes, to keep kids safe, and guide dogs! Guide dogs help blind people.

Yes, dogs can also help people, they can help to find them is they are missing.