Police offer boxing training to win trust of young people in Sutton

Officers from the Ashfield Operation Reacher team - who already run a weekly kids’ football session at Sutton Lawn - are now holding regular boxercise classes at the Sutton Boxing Academy along with club volunteers.

The sessions, which are being supported by charity Support Through Sport, take place every Tuesday between 7pm and 8pm at the club in Outram Street.

Sergeant Paul Peatfield told how he had used his time in charge of the local Reacher team to reach out to local young people and their parents.

He said: “Operation Reacher is a proactive policing initiative that had freed-up dozens of officers to pro-actively target local criminals and disrupt their activity.

"A significant part of that work included putting doors in and arresting some really quite unpleasant people – but it is also complemented by another strand of work we are doing to improve our connections to the local community.

“We want people to know who we are and trust us to address the problems that matter to them. That is especially true of young people - especially those who may be in danger of taking a wrong turn in their lives.

“So when we were approached by the boxing club to put on these sessions we jumped at the chance because it’s another regularly opportunity to get to know young people and break down some of the barriers that can exists between us.

“We understand that some young people don’t feel positively about the police for a variety of reasons, so having the opportunity to speak face-o-face with them and get to know them is invaluable.

“From the football sessions we’ve been running we’ve really be surprised at just how effective this approach has been. We’ve made giant strides with some kids and also got to know parents better.

"As a result they’ve been sharing their problems with us more and we’ve been bale to take action as a result. We’ve gone after drug dealers purely because of the information we’ve received as a result.

“And that’s what this is all about. It’s not about turning kids into boxers - it’s about giving them an opportunity to try something new and getting to know them better.”

Peter Billings , owner of the academy, said: “I set up the gym a couple of years ago because I wanted to give something back to the community.

"Tackling knife crime and giving kids an outlet through sport as really important to me and when I heard about what the police were doing locally with the football sessions I was keen to get involved and help out.

“Boxing is a great sport that also promotes fitness and welling - its great that the police are getting involved in this way because ultimately we all want the same thing – to build a better and safer local community.”

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