Police Officers in Schools Programme in the Balearic Islands

Approximately from the year 2000 and after an important education reform carried out in Spain in the nineties, schools went through important changes, specially highschools where the age of onset in these centres was 11 years old instead of 14 from the former educational system, and the school premises closed their gates, whereas with the former system, students came in and out at their own responsibility.IMG_1482.JPG

All this reform plus the changes in society also affected school life. That is why in the year 2001 a highschool from Pollença Municipality (Majorca) asked the town council for the creation of a service from the Local Police that would work together with the highschool regarding conflict resolution issues and improving school life at the centre. From the year 2002 a Project called "Police Officers in Schools" began with functions aimed at resolving conflicts that arise in schools using resources from the same community (police, schools, social services, youth departments, etc.).

The purpose of Police Officers in Schools was to tackle drug consumption and traffic around schools, truancy, bullying, conflicts among students, unauthorized access to the highschool premises by non-students, etc., and also to participate in preventive campaigns and talks in highschools for reducing issues that concerned minors. As a whole, it was about training and developing local police officers to carry out these tasks.

After the success of the Police Officers in Schools Programme, and from the year 2003, fourteen Majorcan town councils enforced this service in their municipalities until the year 2009.  From this date, the Government of the Balearic Islands created a Police Officers in Schools Framework Programme, which could be enforced in any municipality of the islands and that would serve as a reference for the town councils of the Autonomous Community interested in applying this service from the local police force in their respective schools. Also the government began to organize specific training courses concerning minors through its civil servants school aimed at local police officers in order to provide this service with the best guarantees and better quality as a public service and proximity to citizens.

From the year 2010 different municipalities of the Balearic Islands adhered to the Police Officers in Schools Framework Programme, promoted and coordinated by the General Directorate of Home Affairs until reaching today 63 municipalities out of the 67 that make up the Autonomous Community.