The 111 Files: Police making a difference for youth

The Cactus Longest Day involves a series of physical and mental challenges to get the participants working as a team. Photo / File

In 2011 Rotorua Police embarked on an ambitious community project called CACTUS - Combined Adolescence Challenge Training Unit Support.

The first course ran in Western Heights High School and at first community buy-in was at a premium.

This was about bringing together the police, a school, local businesses, community associations, and local trusts for a common purpose in assisting local youth to achieve something that would change their lives for the better, forever. All in the space of eight weeks. Since, this programme has grown to become established in many schools throughout the Bay of Plenty and Waikato area.

The CACTUS programme relies on, as do most community-based programmes, people contributing towards their community in a voluntary way, with a common goal, to develop youth into better people who can make a valuable contribution towards their own community in the future.

Partnerships, as with this project, are the key.

Police are proud to be associated with this course and for very good reason. The partnerships that have been forged over the last five years are ones that have been hugely beneficial to the police and community.

For example, many of the students now see police in a completely different light and from that, have developed trust and confidence in police.

They see a different side to police, they see that they are people, not just uniforms, they are parents, have children, have mortgages, and see that what they do for a living is a very valuable and honest way to help and assist the community.

Five years on from the first course, the long-term effects are coming through. A 1-2 per cent re-offending rate, motivated young adults now really contributing to their community, either at university, in the workforce or training apprenticeships.

Many, five years on, still assist in the running of CACTUS courses.

Schools have endorsed and seen firsthand the real life benefits of this course.

Outside of the CACTUS course, the day-to-day interaction between the teachers, students, and police has been enhanced, all from a beginning in 2011 with an idea to run a community project like this.

It is not uncommon, especially for Western Heights High School, to see police in their school most if not all days of the week, quite often for no other reason that simply to build that trust and confidence further with students.

Looking at value proposition for time spent, putting what is essentially 30 hours of mentoring, establishing boundaries and discipline into each student, is it time well spent?

Given that a prisoner costs in excess of $100,000 per year to house, the value in spending 30 hours per student over eight weeks to change the course of a life is well worth the investment, isn't it?

-Sergeant Steve Sutton is the officer in charge of the Neighbourhood Policing Team at Western Heights and CACTUS programme co-ordinator.