A small child is intelligent; instilling fear of the uniform is never a good solution. Let us teach our children safety rules instead of making them afraid. Especially during the winter holidays, we should provide the youngest with particular care and attention.
Forcing a child to obey in the manner described above works only temporarily, while the consequences of such words in the future may endanger the child’s safety. Let us suppose that our child gets lost, is approached by a stranger, or their caregiver needs help. It is unlikely that the child will then turn to a police officer who happens to be nearby. Of course, such a reaction would be appropriate and would help avert the danger. However, a child previously frightened by the uniform may simply be afraid to approach and contact an officer.
How can a child call 997 if “they take children away”?
Police officers often encounter situations in which they hear parents warning their children about law enforcement officers. When asked about such an incident, a traffic officer from the Kielce unit quickly recalled an occasion when a woman said to a small child: “If you misbehave, the police officer will take you away.” Hearing these words, the officer intervened. Very calmly, he explained their possible consequences.
He also described another similar situation at a kindergarten, where he was conducting a road-safety class. The teacher told the children, who were behaving rather noisily, that the police officer speaking to them would take them away. The situation was quite absurd, but explaining to the youngest children that police officers never take children away took some time.
Another police officer working in social prevention often found himself in similar circumstances. He stated that preschool children are afraid of officers, and this may partly result from being frightened with the police, because how can such a small child call 997 or 112 if “they take naughty children away”?
The head of the Psychologists’ Section of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Kielce, junior inspector Anna Panasz, acknowledged that children learn from adults how they should behave in different situations. If adults therefore teach them to fear police officers, they will be afraid of them and only over time, or from their peers, learn that this is not true. Small children cannot distinguish truth from fiction and do not understand what a joke is—so if they hear that they should be afraid of a police officer, they will be afraid. Adults should consider how children must feel when, after being frightened with a police officer or a nurse, they nevertheless have to come into contact with representatives of these professions for one reason or another. “Let us not instill fear in young people where it is entirely unnecessary and unhelpful. Let us give them a sense of security, because surely we do not want to raise a fearful child and later a fearful teenager,” the police officers say.
They add:
Let us teach our children that, if they get lost in a park, for example, they can approach a police officer and ask for help. Let us not make them afraid of law enforcement officers.
Let us teach our children safety rules instead of making them afraid. Enforcing obedience in this way may seem like an ideal solution in the short term, but in the future it can have very negative consequences.
KWP w Kielcach/mw/ii