Police measures to prevent young people from being used for criminal activity
Chief of Police says they need to do more to help protect children
Last updated 24th Oct 2025
Wiltshire Police are looking to improve their measures to prevent young people being used to facilitate criminal activity.
On Monday 20 October, the conference at Gablecross Police Station, brought together around a hundred professionals from a range of children’s charities and organisations including police forces and departments.
Police Chief, Catherine Roper said that as a collective, officials are not doing enough to protect children.
She said: “Wiltshire has done a huge amount with regards to children and young persons - we've rearranged our model.
“We now have a directorate model and under our Vulnerability Directorate, we have a dedicated lead for children, young persons and we have made so many steps forward. We have made improvements in the custody space.
“The Barrow Cadbury Trust looked into the fact that we have a younger workforce now, not just in policing but across the board and how we need to make sure that we're aware of trauma, retrauma and trauma response in how we support young people to actually achieve all they can in employment and in their education.”
According to the Office of National Statistics 2021 29.1% of the UK's population are aged 24 and under, which highlights the importance of this subject area.
The national Children and Young Persons (CYP) Charter was also launched at the conference.
This was developed with the support of police forces, partners and community members from across England and Wales, and aims to support policing to become more child centred.
The charter provides a structured set of nine pledges to help police forces deliver consistent, high-quality policing for children and young people, supporting the three pillars of the national CYP strategy that was launched in 2024.
Chief Roper continued: “There is so much happening in the world around us and we need to make sure that we provide a supportive environment so children, young people can understand what they might be vulnerable to.
“So that they can understand what options are available to them and how to make good choices.
“Sadly we know that criminal grooming does take place and that young people can often be seen as a way to facilitate criminal activity, and we need to keep them safe.”