Mum of four plays her part in reducing youth violence in Rochdale

Usually, the saying ‘mum’s the word’ is quite prevalent amongst children, but it is this mum’s words that are hitting a cord with kids in Rochdale as work continues to detect and prevent youth violence in the area.

Special Constable Jemma Mallon has recently played a significant role in her own local community, going into schools, and educating children who are about to go into high school or are in their first year.

In the last 12 months since taking on the role, she has dedicated 360 hours of service, more than double the expected commitment which has seen her engage with more than 100 pupils and staff at a dozen schools in the area.

Jemma has bridged the gap between schools and the Neighbourhood Officer team in Rochdale. She uses her visits to safeguard young people whilst supporting schools in meeting those at risk and provides meaningful advice and referrals to reduce potential harm.

A huge motivation for Jemma, alongside keeping the youngsters of Rochdale safe, is to create a harmonious community for her own four boys to grow up in.

“I like to think that I have a really good understanding of youngsters, I've got four children of my own, two teenagers and two younger boys as well,” she said.

“I've got a wide variety of knowledge around children and how each child has their own individual needs. They are all different, but I'm able to get on a level with children by being a mum and taking a different approach to maybe how other officers that don’t have children might take.

“I wanted to get on a level with them so that they felt comfortable and confident with the police and build that trust, to tackle issues that were going on in the area as well.”

Over the past year, Jemma was instrumental in identifying an emerging youth violence issue. She coordinated intel and concerns between several schools and students fighting one another.

She raised the issue with their supervision after sending in relevant referrals, concluding that the students in these schools were not just fighting as schoolchildren sometimes do, and the issues were a lot deeper.

“I got asked to go into a school and have a chat with these lads in year 10, they're just fighting. You're fighting in school, you're fighting in the community, so I thought, it's fine, I've got a lad in year 10 myself, I'll go and speak to them, I'll sort them out.

“On arrival and into the meeting, it became so clear to me that this just was not the usual kids fighting. Despite people trying to tell me it's normal, it's fine, it happens in every school, I just knew by speaking to the lads, by picking out things that they were saying, by reading the body language, that these kids were really frightened.

“I also spoke to them about their hobbies and what they enjoy doing in their spare time to see how we could support them and find activities for them, from speaking with the children and our partner agencies, it became apparent that some prevention work was crucial if we were to effectively safeguard these children.”

Over a year period between August 2023 to August 2024, there has been a significant reduction in cases of violence with injury which has decreased by 4.9 per cent, with domestic abuse cases (9.6 per cent), violence against women and girls (12.3 per cent), robbery (7.1 per cent) and homicide crimes (16.2 per cent) also decreasing during that time frame.

The Special Constabulary consists of volunteer Police Officers who give up some of their spare time to assist with the policing of their community and increase the effectiveness of local police initiatives.

As a mum of four and being a self-employed network marketer, Jemma has gone above and beyond what is expected. Her desire to make a difference has not gone unnoticed, winning ‘Special Officer of the Year’ at the Chief Constable’s Annual Awards at The Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground on Friday 27 September 2024.

But for her, policing was always in the family with her dad Alan being a Detective Constable from our Rochdale District. She recalls: “I always wanted to join the police. It's always been something that I've wanted to do because my dad's an ex-policeman and I've loved listening to all his stories.

“So, I was really, really, interested in just doing something and I needed to get away from just being a mum, I have always wanted to be a cop, but I wanted to do it on my terms and to work around my family.

“This was a great way to see whether policing was for me and to see if I wanted to do it on a full-time basis.

“I also read an article on Mike Walmsley [MBE] who is the Chief Officers over in the specials unit and I was like blown away by his story, and I was really inspired by it and thought, I'm going to see what being a Special is all about.”

Life doesn’t stop there for Jemma, she’s been promoted to acting Specials Sergeant, a role fully deserved for her hard work over the past four years.

But the change from a member of the public to a police officer was not an easy one for her, however, throwing herself outside of her comfort zone was the push she needed, and Jemma has never looked back.

“I'll be honest with you, it's not been easy, it took me a while to get used to getting out of the being a mother, just the day-to-day little old me, to then getting in the uniform on and going out there and looking at things differently with my policing hat on.

“But the more I did it and the more I got myself involved in lots of different things, met different officers from different departments, just putting myself forward for things all the time, as I really wanted this to work, and I was determined to make sure it did.

“I obviously wanted to make a difference to the community, but more than anything I wanted to make my children proud.”