Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's citizenship lesson.

I'm Mrs. Berry, and I'll be your teacher today.

We are looking at a series of lessons about what is crime and we're on lesson three of six, looking at the role of the police in dealing with crime.

So make sure you have turned off any apps or notifications that might come up and that you're in a distraction-free place to be able to look at our lesson.

We hopefully have got with us our brain so we can do our work and we have got something to write with such as a pen or a pencil and something to write on such as some paper.

When you're ready to begin the lesson, then we can start.

So, we can have a look at this overarching question of the role of police in dealing with crime.

And we're going to start off by looking at what or who are the police.

I'm thinking about the different forces that we have across the country.

We're going to look at their role, so what is their general purpose? What are they meant to be doing? And then looking at how they tackle crime itself.

So, our topic for this series of lessons is what is crime.

And it's important to think about how crime is tackled across the United Kingdom.

And then we'll do some activities that checks your understanding, so that we get to the end of the lesson, you've got a solid idea of how and what the police do to deal with crime.

We're going to start this lesson looking at who are the police.

And the police are part of the justice system of the United Kingdom.

And the justice system is the way in which we enforce law, looking at finding, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing those we suspect have committed a crime.

And there are three layers to the justice system we have in the United Kingdom.

The first is laws, another system of rules put in place by a country or a community.

And we'd looked at those in lesson one.

You could always go back and have a look at lesson one and find out about what is crime and looking at the laws of the country.

Second, we have the police, which is what we're looking at today.

And they are a public service.

They serve people in the communities around you, which prevent, and detect crime and maintain public order.

So they're looking out, trying to stop crime and also trying to ensure that society runs really well.

And then we have the third part of the system, which is courts and punishments.

And there the group of people who deal with civil and criminal cases, again, go back to lesson one, if you're not sure about what civil and criminal cases are.

And where necessary, they decide what punishment someone should have if they're found guilty of a crime that they have been accused of.

So the police enforce the laws, which are written and passed by parliament and they gather the evidence which is used against offenders, they're the people who are suspected of committing a crime in the courts.

Where if the person is found guilty, punishments are given to them.

So there's 43 separate police forces in England and Wales.

And it's slightly different for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

And they have their own police service.

And that's because we have devolved powers in the United Kingdom.

So the different nations, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales have separate powers that they makes different decisions in certain areas, such as crime and justice.

And there are different types of police within those police services.

The three that you are most likely to come into contact with or see are these three.

So you have police officers, and they are the uniformed officers, who make up most of the police force.

You've got police community support officers, who are uniformed staff who work with the support of police officers within the community.

And then you also have special constables and they would appear just like police officers do on the streets.

And they have the same powers as police officers, but they they work for free, so they'll volunteer staff.

So they can do anything a police officer can.

They get the same training, but they are doing that on a voluntary basis.

Though there is one slight difference, it's worth known between police officers and special constables and the police community support officers.

Because police community support officers don't have the same powers as those other two.

They can't arrest on suspicion.

So a police officer or a special constable, if they suspect you might have done something wrong, they can arrest you.

Whereas a police community support officer couldn't.

They have to know that you've done it, potentially by seeing you commit that offence.

So, what is the role of the police? And I'd like you with task one, to start by doing a mind map of what the police do.

What ideas do you have? How do they deal with crime? So you can press pause now, give that task a go, spend about five minutes on that and then when you're ready, press play and we can carry on with the lesson.

So here are the ideas that I came up with.

Well done for giving that a go.

I wonder how many you got that I also got.

So we're going through these one by one and have a look at these different roles that the police have.

So you might have said that you can educate others.

So for example, the police might go into schools and talk to students about issues in their local community.

You might have put protect the public.

For example, police go around patrolling the streets, so there's a public presence.

You might have to put that they investigate.

So they investigate instance or gather evidence.

So for example, they might interview someone who they think has committed a crime or someone who they think might be able to tell them something about a crime that has been committed.

They deal with emergencies.

So for example, if there's a car accident, they might go to the scene to be of presence there and gather information there.

You might've put that they deter people from committing crime.

So this, again, is about those patrols that they do on the streets.

So it's about high visibility.

The general public, they have to see what they are doing and see that there are police around taking care of them.

They prevent crime.

So for example, they might do poster campaigns.

You might have seen some of those later in the lesson, we're going to have a look at a couple of posters that the police have used to try and prevent certain crimes from happening.

You might have put the power of arrest or the fact that they arrest criminals.

So they can only do that if they suspect or see them doing something.

So if they think you've done something or they've seen you do something or someone do something, then they can arrest.

And then keep public order and that's that safety.

So a good example here is demonstration.

So you have to apply to be able to do a march, for example.

And if someone breaches that, then they are there to take them away, keep the public safe, make sure that everyone is behaving in a way that doesn't harm someone else.

So, lots of different roles that the police have to take on to do.

Now, the College of Policing sets out four different roles that the police have.

And the College of Policing is a professional body.

So the police can join a part of that professional body and it provides them with skills and knowledge they need to be able to prevent crime, protect the public, and secure public trust, which are three of the things that the police aim to do.

So the College of Policing say that the main roles of the police are these.

So protecting life and property, preserving order, preventing the commission of offences and bringing offenders to justice.

And they're quite fancy words, aren't they? So they're quite complex.

And we're going to have a look a bit further and see if you could work out what you think is meant by these.

So task two of this lesson is for you to match these key words to the definition.

So we've got those four key roles that the College of Policing came up with, and they've written down for police to be aware of and some definitions as to what they mean.

And I'd like you to have a look at those.

You can write them down and press pause when you're ready to do that.

And when you're finished, pres play and we'll have a look at the answers.

So, well done with giving that a go, we'll see how many got right.

So I've colour coordinated these for you.

So protecting life and property is all about keeping people and their possessions, their items, their objects that they personally own safe.

We've got preserving order, which is ensuring that the country is kept safe and that the citizens or the people follow the laws.

We've got preventing the commission of offences, which is very simply stopping people from breaking the law.

And then we've got bringing offenders to justice.

So that's gathering evidence to enable courts to deal fair judgments.

And if they're guilty, punishments to those who commit crime.

Now, we've spoken a lot about crime and the role of the police in tackling crime.

We need to recap what a crime is.

And we covered this all in lesson one.

So you could go back to lesson one of this unit and have a look and go through that lesson.

But for those of you who haven't done lesson one, a crime is an illegal action or activity, which a person can be punished by law.

And when you break the law, you're breaking a set of rules, which you are expected to follow.

And if you don't follow them, then there is a punishment in place Another way of looking at, is from Victim Support, who say that a crime is a deliberate act that causes physical or psychological harm, damage to or loss of property and is against the law.

Some examples just help you out here a bit further of crimes are stealing clothes from a shop, spraying graffiti on a wall, sharing a naked photo of a school friend.

They're all crimes and you could be punished under the criminal justice system.

These are examples of not a crime, although people would be very unhappy about you doing them.

So borrowing a hoodie from your brother's wardrobe, that's not a crime, because that's your brother and you're borrowing it, hopefully with his permission, you're not stealing it from an organisation.

You're spraying a graffiti art on a wall, where the owner has given permission, or you've been told you can do that.

So that is absolutely fine.

Graffiti, isn't illegal.

It's when you do graffiti when you're not allowed to on a wall that's not yours and you've not got permission.

And then sharing a photo of a friend's face.

That's absolutely fine.

But obviously, a naked photo is very different.

You can't be sharing those because there is a law that says you can't and also it's wrong.

So, how do police tackle these crimes? Prevention is a massive part of what the police do.

They often put together campaigns to stop crime.

And here's some of the examples.

When we looked at the role of the police officers when we did our mind map earlier, I said you would look at some prevention posters and here they are.

So you got some bikes security marking.

So in that area of Kent, so it comes from Kent Police.

They are obviously worried about the fact that people's bikes are being stolen.

To so try and reduce that particular crime to prevent it, they have done a poster advertising security marking, so you could take your bike there, they mark up your bikes that if it does get stolen, it can be identified.

A person can be charged hopefully and prosecuted of what they've done and hopefully, you'd be able to get your bike back.

Similar campaign in the middle there that says secure, mark and register tools.

So an area where people are going into for example, and taking tradesman's tools.

It's a prevention post reminding people to be smart, you can see the yellow letters there.

And ensure that their tools are marked and registered in case a crime happens.

And then on the right there, that one's from the West Yorkshire Police and they have done a prevention campaign about people leaving items on display.

And that could be in a car or it could be in your home, or a window, where people can see something really expensive and they might be tempted to steal them.

So they're saying put it out of sight, make sure that your expensive items that someone might want, keep them away and hopefully it will deter people from trying to steal things from your home or your vehicle.

So prevention is one way in which the police try to tackle crime.

Now, not only do they prevent crime through education and those campaigns that we've just had a quick look at, they also detect and investigate crime.

And they gather the evidence that is then used by courts to try and decide if someone's committed that crime.

And also some of the evidence used might be used to decide what punishment they get.

And there are three main powers that the police have to be able to tackle crime.

And these are stop and search, power to arrest, entry, search and seizure.

And we're going to have a quick look at these three different areas the police can use to tackle crime.

So firstly, stop and search, and that's used if a police officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting you are carrying illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or something to commit a crime with.

They have the power to arrest and that is if a person is involved in committing a crime or attempting to break the law, they can be arrested.

And they must tell you why you're being arrested, what crime they think you've committed and why it's necessary to arrest you and explain why you cannot leave.

It's worth noting here that young people, police can only arrest you in school if it's unavoidable and your head teacher has been told.

And the police also have to contact your parents, guardian or carer as soon as they can after you get to the police station.

So as a young person, remember, you are criminally responsible for yourself, If you've done previous lessons, from the age of 10 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but from the age of 12 in Scotland through to the age of 18.

And so there are slight differences in the criminal justice system for you if you were to be arrested.

And those are some worth knowing about in terms of power to arrest.

And the last one there in yellow, is entry, search and seizure.

So a court order called a warrant has to be gained and then the police can enter and search a property.

And they must have reasonable grounds to suspect there is something relevant to a criminal investigation there.

So, what is the role of the police in dealing with crime? And you must remember that the police are one part of that justice system, so they are almost like the filling in a sandwich, because we've got laws on one side, that's what the police are using to be able to decide whether something that someone is doing is right or wrong in terms of the laws of the country and whether it's a crime or not.

And then they gather the information and the courts and punishments at the side do the deciding and deal with the consequences for anyone who is found to have committed a crime.

Police do not make the laws, so they can't say, "Today, you cannot go out and ride your bike." Okay? That's not the police's role.

The laws come from parliament and the police can't decide if someone is guilty or not, because that's for the courts to decide.

What the police do is enforce the laws through prevention as well as arresting those who break them and gather the evidence for courts to use.

And we do some little questions just to see how much you've understood this lesson.

We'll start off with, do you know which of these statements about police powers is true? Option one, a person must be cautioned by the police before they can be arrested.

Option two, the police can detain a person in custody for up to six days without bringing that person to court.

Option three, a police officer can use force to make a motorist take a breathalyser test.

Or option four, police can't arrest anyone who isn't an adult.

Hope you've had a quick think.

And we should have a person must be cautioned by the police before they can be arrested.

They have to be told what it is they are being arrested for.

Do you know who decides if a person is guilty and hands out punishments? Is it the police, option one.

Courts, option two.

Parliament, option three.

Or teachers, option four.

Hope you've had a quick thing and you have decided that it's the court.

So courts decide if a person is guilty or not.

That is not the role of the police, the role of the police is to gather the information for the courts to be able to use.

Do you know the police can arrest you without telling you why they're arresting you? Is that true? Or is it false? Hopefully you've had a quick think and you've gone with false, because it is your right to be told why you are being arrested.

Do you know that the police only tackles crime by catching criminals committing or who have committed a crime? Is that true? Or is it false? And hope you've had a quick think and you've gone with false.

They also tried to prevent crimes from being committed in the first place.

They also have to gather evidence for courts to use in criminal cases.

So, well done, on completing today's lesson, looking at the role of the police in dealing with crime.

We've looked at who are the police and we've looked at the different forces and the different types of police officers that you might come into contact with.

We've looked at the role of the police.

So thinking about the jobs they do, example protecting the public, educating and investigating.

And we've also looked at how the police tackle crime.

And we looked at the three main powers that they have to be able to tackle crime.

We've checked your understanding by doing a variety of different activities.

And we even recapped back into lesson one.

If there's anything you haven't understood, then do you go back over this lesson or any of the other lessons on crime that you may have missed to be able to understand it.

And hopefully you've learned something useful and new today.

So you can always share your work with Oak National.

And if you'd like to do that, then ask your parent or carer to do that from Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging in @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

And there's one last thing for you to do before you finish today's lesson and that is to go and complete the exit quiz for me now.

So well done for today.

And I look forward to seeing you in some citizenship lessons in the future.