Commander goes back to her roots

Mon 8th February 2010 3.46PM

A DORSET Police Chief Superintendent was welcomed back to her old school after pupils wrote to the force Chief Constable Martin Baker requesting a visit. As a youngster, Bournemouth and Poole Police Commander Ch Supt Lynn Hart lived on the Alderney West estate and attended local schools; Sylvan, Manorside Combined School and finally, Kemp-Welch School – now Rossmore Community College. On her return to Rossmore Community College the Chief Superintendent spent the day educating and mentoring students. She started by taking an assembly during which she asked students aged 12 to 14 what, if any, anti-social behaviour they had witnessed in the area, as well as how they, and other members of the community, felt about it.

She then launched a competition for students to submit their ideas on how the community might prevent anti-social behaviour from occurring in the future by designing a poster. The winning poster will be displayed in a variety of public places and the winner will also get to spend a day with Dorset Police, shadowing Ch Supt Hart and visiting a police station, the firearms unit and both marine and dog sections. Earlier in the week and in a bid to understand each other’s roles within the public services, Rossmore Community College’s assistant head teacher, Clare Wood, spent a day with Chief Superintendent Hart and video footage was shown to pupils as a taster of what to expect should they win the competition. Chief Superintendent Hart said: “As a young girl I was just like these students and I faced many of the same choices.

It may not have been called anti-social behaviour then but there was still the opportunity to get into trouble. “I chose to avoid trouble and I know today’s young people can too.” Her 34-years policing experience came in handy, when she took a careers lesson for students who had expressed an interest in a career with the police. Clare Wood said: “Chief Superintendent Hart is really successful in her career and it’s great that our students can see someone with their background doing this role and they can aspire to that. Secondly, from Chief Superintendent Hart’s perspective, she has had the opportunity to meet with our young people and get to grips with the issues they have.”