A new briefing paper on policing young adults, aimed at Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), has been published by the Police Foundation on behalf of the T2A Alliance.

This briefing aims to provide a summary of the key findings and implications from a small study on the policing of young adults. It provides an insight into the key challenges front-line officers face in street encounters with young adults (aged 18-24), referring in particular to stop and search and the night-time economy. It focuses not so much on how front-line officers should best enforce the law in these situations, but on how they should best negotiate such encounters without risking escalation and how this should be embedded in police practice.

The briefing is divided into six sections:

• Background
• Encounters with the police
• Stop and search
• The night-time economy
• Engaging with young adults
• Training and supervision

The paper, based on a longer scoping study published earlier this year, makes a number of recommendations for consideration, including:

• Raising awareness of the changing transition to adulthood and its implications for policing
• Changing how the police interact with young adults, particularly when exercising their powers to stop and search
• Developing more imaginative and effective ways of engaging with young adults
• Expanding police training to incorporate interpersonal skills and aligning officer training more closely with on-the-job supervision for probationers
• Investing in the development of a stronger evidence base

It concludes:

“Since November 2012, the replacement of the old police authorities with newly elected PCCs has fundamentally altered the relationship between the police, the government and the public. Given their mandate to hold the police to account, oversee the policing budget and reflect the wishes of local citizens in their plans, PCCs will now determine whether young adults will form part of the new governance, budgetary and consultative arrangements or become marginal to them. They hold the key to whether resources are invested in the right kind of training, supervision, management and leadership that will produce a step change in how young adults are policed. In reality, there is neither the budget for over-policing nor any excuses for under-protection.”