Dutch police's second youth council more diverse

The Dutch police presented its second youth council on Monday. The youth council was first established last year, with the aim of giving the police a young people's perspective on important social issues, such as discrimination, cybercrime and counter-terrorism. The photo the police released of the new youth council shows that the council attracted teenagers with more diverse backgrounds this year. 

Control Alt Delete, an organization that fights against racial profiling, criticized the composition of the first youth council for being "predominantly white". The organization wondered to what extent the kids on the first council could advise the police on topics like discrimination based on their own experiences.

Diversity is also an important topic for many of the teens on the council this year. "I think the subject of diversity is very important. As a young person I can, along with the rest of the council, contribute my bit and tell how I feel about it", 13-year-old Zakaria said. 17-year-old Fenna: "I like to give my vision on the matter, and certainly on diversity. That topic is about us, about what our world will look like, because we are the people of the future."

The first topic up for discussion for this year's youth council was the core values of the police - integrity, courage, reliability, and binding. The council will meet six more times this year, with a different topic of discussion at each meeting. 

Liesbeth Huyzer, member of the police force management, stressed that the youth is important to the police. "Trust for society is vital for our functioning. To earn that trust you have to be in contact with society, and the youth is an important group. They are the future", she said when presenting the new council on Monday. "They are growing up in such a fundamentally different society than, for example, their parents. That is why it is very important that we hear their sound too."