POLICEMEN AND BOYS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 120, 16 November 1929, Page 15

POLICEMEN AND BOYS

FIXE. SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

A g>eat tribute is paid by Chief Coustable Dam, 0.8. E., of Norwich, to tho work done by the police in the boys' clubs which have been started through his influence. In an interesting article in "The World's Children" he tells tho story of this movement. He' begins by ; stating that those parents who try Jo .-.check troublesome children, by saying that they will "fetch a polico"----man" do ill service to their little ones. The clubs which are' administered by the police show- really wonderful results, and Mr. Dam shows that the membership of these is drawn from the poorest and roughest of the community —boys whose homes are bad, and who lack guidance ana opportunity for the disciplined development of their natu-1 ral instincts. For such boys tho first years of release from the restraints of .school are.danger years; their chances for .good or ill affect the" whole course" of their after life. These are the very boys-'who come most into conflict with the police—the incipient" criminal class of the groat aggregations of population. They are apt to regard the poJico as .their.natural enemies. ; Yet Chief Constable Dam says: "Tho offences into which these youths fall under such conditions are very rarely due to evil dispositions. . . I am convinced that naturally bad boys are hard to find. Their offences consist mostly m getting rid of latent energy." With such ideas as theso the clubs are run, and the statement is boldly made that the police-organised clubs have wholly changed the boys' attitude to the police, and hence to the law and to society. Norwich supplies some interesting statistics which *are a tribute to the success of the scheme. In 1913 no fewer than 96 youths were charged at the police courts of that city, and the figure was maintained approximately till 1919, when they were reduced to 45. In 1922 they had fallen to 12, and at this low level they have remained. This, in a population of 140,000 with industrial congestion, a good aeal of chronic unemployment, . and in some parts bad housing conditions, is a fine record. Those who keep the clubs going are not only looking for good results in the present as they keep the boys off the streets and find occupations for "idle hands," but tho police who willingly give their time and energy to this work are doing more than that, for they are helping to establish a generation of law-abiding and order-loving citizens. Accordingly too high a tribute can hardly be paid to them.