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"If I can make a difference to a young person now, it might help to stop them from a life of crime later on."
Following the encouragement of a friend, PC Mapianda began his career in the Met in 2019. Since then he has worked in a variety of different teams, including responding to 999 calls and working as a detective tracing offenders of violent crimes. He is currently working in the Safer Schools team in south London.
My role currently is to work with schools to help to keep young people safe and stop them from committing crimes. We each have a set of schools we work with, a mixture of primary, secondary and colleges, and build up a good relationship with them and the local community. We help to create a safe environment for children to learn in and also make young people become comfortable with dealing with the police. One of our aims is to stop children from being drawn into crime or anti-social behaviour early on in their lives and encourage them to follow more positive pathways. During the school holidays, when the schools are closed, my team responds to emergency 999 calls.
In my previous role, I was assisting with the arresting violent criminals. It was rewarding to know that you’ve helped get a criminal sentenced and stopped them from committing further crimes. Often you would find out that they started offending as a teenager though, which made me decide that I wanted to make a difference earlier on in people’s lives, so moved into the Safer Schools team. If I can make a difference to a young person now, it might help to stop them from a life of crime later on.
I joined during the Black Lives Matter movement and the Black community does not have a good rapport with law enforcement in general. Some of my family members and friends are not happy and still distrustful of the police, but since I joined I have managed to change some of their views. My friend has even joined since! Yes there is still negativity and a lot of continued negativity from past experiences but if you have had a negative experience, the best thing to do is be a part of the change you want to see in the Met and join.
The opportunities in the Met are limitless, there’s always something new do. I’ve moved around a lot of different roles in the time since I’ve joined and enjoyed them all for different reasons. What has also stood out for me is the level of support colleagues are ready to offer, in every role I’ve done. Everyone wants you to succeed!