Deb scoops award after life-changing work with youngsters

22 November 2021

A West Midlands officer has been recognised for driving hundreds of youngsters away from the world of crime and helping them get their lives back on track.

DC Deborah Dace (Deb), a youth crime officer, won a West Midlands Police Diamond Award having spent the past five years working with children as young as 10 who’ve committed offences.

Deb supports young offenders and their families, hoping to intervene during the earlier stages, so that they hopefully avoid prosecution in the future.

“Look, nobody wants a kid to go to court. What I do is educate and help children and their parents, showing them that there is an alternative option to court,” said mother-of-two Deb, who has been in the Force for 29 years.

“We ask ourselves, what can we do to stop this from happening again in the future? What interventions can we put in place to prevent this child from re-offending?

“We look at their lifestyles and their past experiences, along with the reasons behind them getting into trouble.

“You can’t measure what I do in any way, but if we don’t hear that kid’s name again, hopefully it means things have worked.”

Some of the children have been exploited to drugs, many have behavioural issues and, quite often, they have been caught for the first time with weapons.

Deb created a support network for young offenders, by working closely with youth and health services, schools and charities to help children who are faced with the prospect of being charged, and a criminal record, which could jeopardise their futures.

“Things have changed so much over the past five years. Back then, the incidents seemed more minor – perhaps a bit of cannabis here and there - but now, we’re facing a generation of knife crime. It’s scary,” Deb explained, “The easiest thing to do is to charge them with criminal offences. If they’re found with some drugs or a knife, why not charge them?

“But my job is to understand how they’ve found themselves in that position. Have they been bullied or threatened and foolishly felt having a knife would help? Have they been groomed into carrying those drugs?
“As a parent, I would want police to be taking the proper action.”

Deb is a specialist in out of court disposals, which depending on each individual case, involves looking to offer young offenders the support and chances they need to prosper rather than criminalising them.

“I’m a dead proud police officer,” she said, “I’m passionate about building bridges between the police and communities. I want to change the perception of the police, by doing things like simply talking to the parents like they’re ordinary people.”

It is not just the offenders that Deb supports, it is the victims too.

“It’s just as important for me to work with victims,” Deb said, “I contact them and provide them with a service. After all, I don’t want them to lose faith in the police.”

Upon hearing that she had won a Diamond Award, Deb said that she was “really surprised”.

“My superintendent called to congratulate me and I remember saying, congratulate me for what?” Deb recalled.

“When the news went out that I had won, on social media, lots of people commented such nice things, including old colleagues, which really meant a lot.

“It’s lovely to receive the award but this really is a team effort. I couldn’t do this alone. It’s great to see many of the children we’ve helped really turn their lives around, getting back into education, training or work, and improving their life prospects. That’s what it’s all about.”