Well, as I've said in earlier posts, if they really lived up to their function of preventing crime, they would already be involved in these schemes and projects, because they would want to actively prevent crime.
Of course there is involvement from the OB in these schemes but more in the sense of these services asking for them to deal with somebody, as opposed to a copper coming in to facilitate a discussion on domestic violence or run a sports session.
How much do coppers understand the psychology of what they do? I've had some interesting chats with my mum about riot cops in particular; from a psychoanalytical perspective she finds them a very interesting group, because she wonders what prompts somebody to choose a career like that, a career where let's face it it's pretty violent. Like bailiffs and bouncers, you have to quite like the thrill of the fight. And this can quite easily mean that you say and do things which you know will wrangle and irritate people.
Take kettling for example, psychologically we know it gets peoples' backs up, we know it increases the chances of people hitting out, so why do we still kettle people when we know it actually increases the chances of violence?
One of the first things youth workers learn as part of their training is how their body language, eye contact, tone of voice etc affects the outcome of a situation. Do you think coppers get this type of training? I don't, but I think it's hugely important given their work is people person work.