The Juvenile Liaison scheme originated in Liverpool and was started in 1949 by Chief Constable Martin.

Nine plain clothed Policeman and Women (one for each divison) visted homes , schools and youth clubs getting to know the youth of their areas.
 
The press printed ‘Novel Police Plan Cuts Child Crime’. It quoted an address by the Home Secretary in which he praised the Liverpool City Police experiment of the Juvenile Liason Officers scheme, he went onto say:

“this scheme does not work with the use of patrol cars and short wave radios ,the rounding up of murderers and mail bag robbers……it concerns itself solely with children, children who break street lamps and filch bars of chocolate”.
 
The scheme was heralded a great success , shopkeepers welcomed the drop in pilfering and teachers noticed a two third drop in delinquency, but in the local press concluding paragraph , the greatest testimonial came from an old lag who had spent a great deal of his time in Walton prison, he went up to a JLO one day and said:
 
” Look here copper. I dont like the company my boy’s mixing with. Just keep an eye on him, will you ? I dont want him to turn out like me”

The success of this scheme was adopted by all police forces in the UK.

John Forrest