West Midlands Police yesterday defended their decision to arrest and reprimand three children caught damaging a tree after their parents accused officers of over-reacting.
The youngsters - a boy aged 11 and two girls aged 12 - were detained following reports that they were stripping branches from a council-owned cherry tree in Halesowen. During their time in custody, Sam Cannon, Amy Higgins and Katy Smith, who said they were building a den, had their shoes removed, their photos taken and DNA samples fed into the system.
Superintendent Stuart Johnson, operations manager at Halesowen police station, said the three children were arrested to stop low level crime developing into "more serious matters". Officers gave the trio a reprimand - the equivalent of a caution for juveniles. This means their details will be kept on file for up to five years.
Supt Johnson said: "I support the actions of my officers who responded to complaints from the public about kids destroying an ornamental cherry tree by stripping every branch from it, in an area where there has been reports of anti-social behaviour.
"West Midlands Police deals robustly with anti-social behaviour. By targeting what may seem relatively low-level crime we aim to prevent it developing into more serious matters."
Jacqueline Higgins, the mother of Amy, said her daughter had refused to sleep in her bed after the arrests.
Miss Higgins, a 37-year-old office manager, said: "Amy was scared to be locked up knowing murderers and rapists have been sat in the same cells.
"The police action was completely unbalanced. These were children playing in a tree."
Sam's father, Nicholas Cannon, said: "The children did not deserve to be treated in the way they were. A simple ticking-off by officers would have been sufficient.
"To detain them, DNA them and treat them that way was simply cruel and an over-reaction by the police.
"Generations of local children have played in that tree and my son and his friends won't be the first to have thought of building a tree den."
Mr Cannon said he had written to the police to complain about the action taken.
Rod Morgan, chairman of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, said: "It is my opinion that too many children are being criminalised for behaviour that could be dealt with informally by ticking them off and speaking to their parents."
