POLICE in Droitwich say parents need to teach children to trust officers, not fear them.

On Thursday, Droitwich Safer Neighbourhood Team posted a picture on their Twitter account reminding parents that police are outside schools to protect children.

The Tweet included a poster by Durham Police, saying 'Parents, please don't tell your children that we will take them off to jail if they are bad. We want them to run to us if they are scared, not be scared of us.'

Droitwich PCSO, Andrea Leslie, said it's a common problem faced by forces around the country, including in Worcestershire.

"We do seem to come across this when we're out on patrol. We do try not to 'disrespect ' parents when they comment, we just want to make sure both parents and children understand we're the good guys and we're here to help them.

"We do a lot of school patrols and general foot patrol on the estates around Droitwich, and we want children to feel comfortable coming to us if there's a problem. We don't want them being afraid that we'll take them away — we want to create a good balance within the community and not be used as a threat by parents/carers as a means of chastisement. We're here to support families but not parent their kids. We will of course speak to children one on one if parents have a specific concern about their behaviour or if they are potentially taking the 'wrong path' but over all when parents see us while with their children or if they are having to discipline their children, we ask they don't frighten them with horror stories of us taking them away and putting them in jail."