POLICE and young people should work on their relationship by acknowledging each other’s roles and achievements and trying to not to think in stereotypes, young people have said.

People under 25 across Sussex have developed a ‘youth pact’ to guide how police and young people should interact with each other, after finding that many youths felt targeted by police.

The Sussex Youth Commission (SYC), set up by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), presented the guidelines among other recommendations to Sussex Police at the Amex in Brighton on Wednesday.

Rose Dowling, director of Leaders Unlocked, a social enterprise that works with young people, said the commission had shown “real tenacity” in talking to more than 2,000 young people about their views on the police.

She said the ‘youth pact’ was a “phenomenal legacy” that would “certainly set the standard for an improving relationship going forward”.

Among other things, the nine-point pact says police should try and have more informal interactions with young people, while young people should see police as “a service rather than a force”.

It adds police should work to a high standard, while young people should have high expectations of police but also be held responsible for their own behaviour.

PCC Katy Bourne set up the Youth Commission in 2013, bringing together a different set of young people each year to interview their peers and tell police what they think should change. It presented its first full set of recommendations last year.

Among the other findings this year were that lack of money was one of the main causes for re-offending among young people.

It recommended further research into how young offenders could find work, and try and make sure they had good information about finding employment.

Young people also said that cyber-bullying and online harassment was a “widespread” problem among their peers from a young age, the commission found.

The SYC has pledged to help Sussex police fight cyber bullying by telling them when it happens and testing their policies.

Josh Funnell, 16, from Littlehampton, said of tackling the problem: "We need to dream big, and use innovative education methods to change the views of online crime.”

The commission also found that young people were particularly worried about hate crime, and needed more education on drugs.