When you think about the duties of a police officer, spending a wet night under canvas on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition doesn’t spring to mind.
But that was where PC Amy Ferguson found herself on a rainy Monday night in Aberfoyle in May this year, accompanying a group of teenagers from Springburn, north Glasgow, on their trip.
PC Fergy, as she is known to pupils, is nearing the end of her first year as a so-called ‘campus cop’ at Springburn Academy. She is one of 181 officers deployed in schools in Scotland.
Duties are as varied as the children at the school, but for Ferguson, the point is to build relationships, try to cut offending, and keep the young people safe by building trusted connections with them and their families.
“I’m not there to get kids in trouble all the time,” she explains. “For me, it is being another safe person kids can come to.”
A single day might see her checking in with pupils coming to school late, or popping into classes to help with the curriculum where it touches on crime and policing.
She spends her lunchtimes at the local shopping centre, keeping an eye on pupils when they are out and about.
Her time is split between the school and her community policing role, so she might also spend her backshift speaking to young people in the area at night, and making sure they aren’t getting into trouble.
“On a Thursday night recently, I heard a boy from the school say ‘she’s everywhere’,’’ she laughs.
“That was amazing for me. I want them to think that I’m everywhere and I know everything that’s going on.
“I think that helps them stop and think ‘I don’t want PC Ferguson to find out about this. She spoke to us about this, we shouldn’t be hanging about in this block of flats, because she’s told us not to’.
“In the morning, I always like to be at the front door to see the kids coming in,” she continues.
“I want them to think that I’m everywhere and I know everything that’s going on”
David Threadgold, SPF chair
“I’m asking why are they late, have they had breakfast. It’s a good chance just to see what’s going on at home for the kids as well.”
Some of the toughest and most important work involves child protection, whether that is working on cases involving school pupils, or keeping children safe online, and she often has to work with the child protection unit.
“Because I have a relationship with the kids, I can chat to them and pass things on,” she says. “There have been a few cases like that, and we have been working together to figure things out.
“Some of the kids are having a really difficult time at home, and that is really hard.”
Another major issue is mobile phones, along with cyber-bullying and online hate speech.
“The stuff that gets said and goes on in group chats can be tough,” she says. “Kids are using often hateful and pretty extreme bullying through their phones.
“It is a case of trying to deal with that, making sure that kids are reporting it and telling the teachers, so that then I can hopefully step in and try to help.”
Against a backdrop of increased levels of youth violence and offending – from knife crime to shoplifting and violent crime – the campus cop is a way that police can gain the trust of young people, building relationships to prevent offending, as well as protecting those most at risk of harm.
While prevention will always be hard to measure, Ferguson’s work is firmly rooted in early intervention and talking to children about what they are doing.
“A lot of what I do is following up on stuff that’s maybe happened in the community that our kids have been involved in. I like to keep an eye on that, and check in on the kids if something bad has happened to them, or pull them aside and have a chat with them if they’ve maybe been misbehaving in the community,” she says.
She has also developed a new project with the charity SISCO, which works with adults leaving prison.
It involves young people at risk of offending spending time with people who have served time behind bars, to help them understand where their behaviour might lead.
“I’m not there to get kids in trouble all the time. For me, it is being another safe person kids can come to”
David Threadgold, SPF chair
Building relationships with children and young people is one thing, but working with families can sometimes be more challenging.
“If you’ve had negative experiences with the police, or police have had to go through your door first thing in the morning, that’s scary, and that’s not nice for people,” says Ferguson.
“I think it has taken longer to build a relationship with them than with the kids, but not in a bad way. I’ve had some amazing parents on the phone and some really positive conversations.
“They can be more wary. They can be, like, ‘Why were you speaking to the police officer in school today?’
“Everybody is probably a bit more comfortable with me in the school now, including the parents.”
Walking around the school corridors with her, it becomes obvious that she knows each child and cares deeply about them reaching their potential.
“I think when I came in, I didn’t expect to get that right away,” she says. “Trust with any young person is earned, and respect from them as well.
“I do understand that I’m a police officer, I’m a different person to them. I think it’s been really nice to build those relationships with the kids, knowing that that wasn’t just going to happen right away.
“A lot of people tell me there is nothing for them to do around here, so I try and find free things that they can go to. I have helped them sign up for the police cadets, or sent them along to free classes at Glasgow Kelvin College.”
The toughest part of the job, she says, is seeing children struggle with issues away from school. But it also throws up some of her most rewarding moments.
“Some kids have a tough home life, and that can be hard,” she says. “I got an awesome Christmas card from a girl who had been really struggling.
“I’d been checking up on her every day. It was a really busy day and she handed it to me and ran off. I honestly teared up reading it, because she was doing so much better.”