The Economist – read by 8.5 million people around the world – has hailed Jersey’s honorary police system as a model for other jurisdictions to copy.
One of the magazine’s columnists, who visited Jersey recently, found teenagers who had stolen a keg of beer being put to work on a St Ouen farm and being forced to write a letter of apology.
As part of the community-based punishment they were also required to spread manure on a sheep farmer’s field.
After six months, only one of the four teenagers had reoffended.
Bagehot, the name under which the columnist writes, praised the way officers were elected locally and worked on a voluntary basis, saving taxpayers thousands.
