KEY POINTS:
Police officers are to be stationed in schools in problem areas as part of a drive to cut youth crime and gang activities.
Under the scheme, five specially trained officers will be based in 10 secondary schools in South Auckland, an area with one of the country's highest
rates of robbery and other violent crime.
Police chiefs are introducing the system to build up trust with youngsters and as a way of gathering intelligence about youth gangs, drug dealing and as a way of tackling crime before it happens.
Supporters believe that an officer who is readily available is more likely to win the trust of pupils, and to hear not only when crimes take place but who is behind them.
Police also believe that having officers in schools has a major effect on crime outside the gates.
The scheme will start in March and will initially put five officers into lower-decile schools.
Each officer will spend 30 hours a week in two schools, devoting 15 hours a week to each and having an office in the school.
The officers will not be able to be diverted to other police operations. Similar schemes in the past have been criticised because they did not have this restriction.
The officers will be encouraged to join in the schools' culture and mingle with pupils to build up trust.
Pupils will be able to text or email them information.
Students with behavioural problems and those involved in petty crime around the school will be sent to visit the officers for a talk. The officers will also give support to problem pupils' families.
Manukau City councillor Daniel Newman met Police Minister Annette King and Manurewa MP George Hawkins this week to discuss Manurewa's "major law and order problem" after the murders of dairy worker Krishna Naidu and alleged tagger Pihema Cameron last month.
Teenagers are often nervous about going to police with information but having an officer at school may change that, Mr Newman said.
"A lot of these kids are aware of things that are of interest to the police," he said.
"Having a policeman on site they can develop trust and a relationship with them."
The officers could also use the relationship to gather information.
He said a lot of young people saw police in a negative light, and that needed to change.
The police community services manager for the district, Senior Sergeant Mike Fulcher, said: "We experimented with the scheme in 1999 through 2000. We have picked the game up mainly because of events in the last 18 months.
"We have done surveys, and it is interesting that most kids welcome the presence of a police officer and feel it makes the school a safer place."
James Cook High School principal Bryan Smith said the earlier scheme was tried in his school.
"It was a superb programme. We had an excellent constable and he did a great job. His job was to get to know the kids and keep them on the straight and narrow.
"At the beginning of the year he would go around every Year 9 class and talk to them about what the police did and about some of the laws and the way they impacted on young people. Kids really enjoyed it and learned what the police were trying to do."
Secondary Principals Council chairman Arthur Graves said last night: "As long as schools have a lot of input into how the scheme is used, it sounds an excellent idea, especially as a way of helping police build better relationships with young people."
LAW CLASSES
Schools in the trial are:
* Tangaroa College.
* Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate.
* Manurewa High.
* James Cook High.
* Aorere College.
* De La Salle College.
* Mangere College.
* Southern Cross Campus.
* Otahuhu College.
* McAuley High.
