Children’s crime prevention ideas helping keep people safer this Christmas

Young crimefighters have been recognised for their artistic efforts as part of a poster competition organised by a Northamptonshire Police community support officer (PCSO).

Six primary schools on PCSO Naomi Coote’s Northampton Central patch were invited to submit designs for festive crime prevention posters, after she and crime prevention officer Kate Bailey visited Year 4 children at each school to share crime prevention advice.

A total of 106 entries were then collected from the schools and judged by a panel including PCSO Coote, Northampton Central’s Inspector Beth Warren, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold, crime prevention officer Kate Bailey and representatives from the town’s Grosvenor shopping centre.

After a rigorous judging process, a winner was finally picked alongside six runners-up, one from each school.

The winning entry was from Barry Road Primary School pupil Jessica, whose poster has been turned into an advice leaflet which is now being used by the local Neighbourhood Policing Team.

A prize-giving was held on Friday, December 8, at the Grosvenor centre which sponsored the creation of display versions of the winning and runner-up posters.

Children from the involved schools attended with their families to see their posters on display and receive prizes kindly donated by local businesses.

As well as the winner and runners up, two posters were also highly commended by the judges – one for its focus on fire prevention advice, which has been shared with Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, and another for its advice guarding against the theft of parcels from doorsteps by ‘porch pirates’.

PCSO Coote said: “All the children we presented to were really engaged with our crime prevention advice, and seeing their creativity in their poster designs afterwards was lovely.

“Judging the competition was hard because the standard was so good with so many great ideas, but we were finally able to agree that Jessica was our winner and choose our six runners-up, as well as the two entries we also felt deserved special recognition for their innovative ideas.

“We’ve had great input from all the schools, and I’d also like to thank the local businesses that have supported this competition and donated prizes for our winners, including the Grosvenor centre, Smyths Toys, The Entertainer and Tesco Mereway.

“I hope Jessica enjoys seeing her design on our leaflet, which we’re handing out at community events and which will hopefully help people protect themselves against crime this Christmas.”