Supervised classrooms and violation of privacy: the plan for agents in schools that failed in the United Kingdom

LondonThe pilot plan of the Mossos d'Esquadra to introduce plainclothes officers in schools has a distant precedent. Beyond the data highlighted by the OECD – one in every two developed countries has similar cooperation programs between schools and authority agents "for preventive and community purposes" –, the United Kingdom began to do so shortly after the post-war period (1949, in Liverpool) with contact sessions with young people. But the most recognizable figure of agents in schools —school liaison officers— consolidated from the sixties. And the massive deployment arrived, especially, in the 2000s, under the governments of Tony Blair, with the safer school partnerships. As part of this initiative, officers —safer school officers— were assigned to specific schools, especially in vulnerable or considered problematic urban areas. In many cases, they worked physically within the schools, with an office, regular presence, and participation in the school's daily life, and also, occasionally, in the weekly and traditional assembly, the meeting of all students and staff, as a moment of reflection to strengthen the community. Usually, the officers were in uniform, as their role combined prevention and visibility.

However, the model began to generate growing debate, as it blurred the line between school discipline and the criminal justice system. There was a risk of judicializing minor conflicts that could have a disproportionate impact on students from racial minorities. The lack of specific training in handling youth-specific problems or issues, or the inequality between some police forces and others in the country, was also one of the common criticisms. But the turning point was the well-known case of Child Q.

Controversy and a new model

In December 2020, a fifteen-year-old Black student was thoroughly searched inside her school in Hackney. This is a very economically unequal district in East London, with large pockets of poverty but also very gentrified and affluent areas. Three police officers proceeded, on suspicion of drug possession, to strip the girl without the presence of any responsible adult from the school.

Child Q was forced to remove all her clothes, including her underwear; they made her remove the sanitary pad she was wearing because she was menstruating, open her buttocks, and cough. She was not carrying any illegal substances, however. The subsequent independent investigation (2025) concluded that the action had been "unnecessary, disproportionate, and traumatic" for the victim, and highlighted the racial bias in the police's behavior. The girl suffered a clear violation of her privacy and her rights as a minor. Two of the officers involved were expelled from the force, and the school had to pay significant compensation for failing to adhere to child protection protocols.

The Child Q affair ultimately condemned the model of policing within schools. In 2025, Scotland Yard eliminated the role of permanent officers within educational institutions. At that time, there were 371 remaining out of a maximum of almost a thousand deployed in the early 2000s. Now, these officers deployed to ensure student safety have been integrated into community policing teams specializing in youth. The new model maintains the relationship with schools, but externally and with occasional interventions —talks, prevention, coordination with social services—, avoiding daily presence inside or around classrooms.

Confirmation of racial bias

The criticism of racism in police actions affecting adolescents – and adults too – is recurrent. This very week it has been denounced again. A report presented on Tuesday revealed that black children and young people in England and Wales are almost eight times more likely to be subjected to full body searches by the police than white ones. They also suffer more from the use of police force, with justifications based on their "size, gender or build". The Children's Commissioner, Rachel de Souza, warned that these racial inequalities have worsened in recent years.

The report's data, collected between July 2023 and June 2024, analysed the behaviour of the 44 police forces in England and Wales, and revealed that 362 such searches had been carried out on under-eighteens. Of these, 31% affected black children or young people, 50% white, and 11% Asian. Taking into account the proportion of the population and racial groups, it is deduced that the black population is almost eight times more likely to suffer these behaviours compared to white people and five times more than Asian people.