No Police in Schools is a community campaign led by Kids of Colour and the Northern Police Monitoring Project. Young people, teachers, parents and the community are united by the shared concern of the growing presence of police in schools in lower socio economic areas of Greater Manchester with high populations of ethnic minority groups.
A report commissioned by the group found that police presence in schools worsened existing inequalities for marginalised groups, criminalised young people and created a hostile environment with inappropriate conduct from officers.
To bring awareness to the campaign, a billboard design was commissioned and strategically placed around Greater Manchester. A provocative collage style illustration paired with a matter of fact line of copy got the city talking, with the wider community not realising there had been a police presence in their local schools.
A month after the billboards went up, police officers that were in schools in Greater Manchester at the time, were pulled out and redeployed elsewhere. While this is a win for the area, the campaign continues as a recent report from the Runnymede Trust show that there are 979 police officers still operating in UK schools.
Collaborators
Sarah Joynt-Bowe - Communications Strategist at Prosocial Strat
