‘Substitute parents’

Press, 1 July 1978, Page 3

‘Substitute parents’

PA Hamilton Police and teachers had to be substitute parents for many New Zealand children, said Inspector D. J. Hamilton. Mr Hamilton, the police Youth Aid co-ordinator, was at Hamilton for a “law related education” programme which has been attended by 21 policemen over the last two weeks. In an interview, Mr Hamilton said gradual evolution was forcing a changing role on the police.

The increasing number of solo-parent families and Polynesian families were causing problems for children. Polynesian children whose parents could not speak English became alienated from their families, and children of one-parent families sometimes replaced a parent with a policeman or teacher, Mr Hamilton said. Because the police were often the first persons on the scene, it was up to them to try 7 to

resolve the combat and conflict that arose in families. Changes in society had resulted in a gradual change in police training to make police staff more ysmpathetic to the type of situation they would come up against, he said. The Youth Aid section of the police was growing all the time, and in some of the worst delinquent crime areas in the country Youth Aid officers were very 7 well integrated Into the community 7.