Our area, like many neighborhoods throughout the nation, has recently experienced an uptick in crimes related to vehicles, such as theft of property from inside cars after breaking a window or the outright theft of the entire vehicle. This is particularly frustrating for victims, who are often left without transportation or are stuck paying for repair costs. It is also exasperating for police officers, as many of the suspects they apprehend are young people who are quickly released and back at it again.
Troubling trends in youth crime
In August, some of our officers were able to apprehend three suspects who had attempted to steal a couple of Kias without success. The particularly sad and disturbing part was the ages of the suspects. One was 10 years old, and the other two were 11 years old. Those are just children! This is troubling on so many levels.
What inspired them to do this? What did they expect to do with those vehicles if they had succeeded? They obviously have limited driving experience, if any, yet were going to attempt to drive them away on city streets with pedestrians and other traffic. Even though we charged them, the reality is that little will happen due to their ages. They are unlikely to be rehabilitated from this experience. What can we do as cops, and how can we prevent this from happening with other kids?
Building bridges with youth outreach
One area where police departments can make a difference is with robust youth outreach programs. These efforts allow police officers to act as mentors and friends to young people and develop long-term, trusting relationships with both the children and their families. Our agency has made this a mission-critical focus. We have done this in collaboration with our schools, and we are confident it is having an impact on our young people.
One special program we use is called Cop Scouts, and it has been fantastic in helping us build bridges of trust with those we serve, both young and old. Cop Scouts is designed for primary grade-aged boys and girls, generally 7 to 12 years old, and parents are encouraged to attend with the kids. It is a blend of Cub Scouts/Girl Scouts and a Police Explorer program and allows officers to spend time and fellowship with the scouts, teaching life skills and developing friendships with both the officers and fellow scouts.
We have four officers who volunteered to be Cop Scout officers: Officer Joe Fazio, Officer Drayy Wilkerson, Officer Gloria Mercado and Officer Tony “Pizza” Battista. It is important to have the right fit of officer for this type of program. They need big hearts and must care deeply about the future of our community, and we are fortunate to have that in all four of them.
The officers plan and organize the events with the Cop Scouts, and we strive to host something at least monthly, with a goal of twice a month when possible. Our area is filled with museums, which are go-to opportunities for us, allowing us to hang out together while learning interesting things. Other events we hope to organize include drone flying, camping, hiking and fishing. We also plan to teach them how to properly fold an American flag, along with basic life-saving skills like applying a tourniquet.
The Cop Scouts pledge is: “Today I will be brave, loyal and kind. Today I look forward to learning something new, so I become the best I can be.” The Cop Scouts values are: “Be brave, be loyal, be kind, Be YOU.” Each Cop Scout is assigned his or her uniform shirt. Officer Joe Fazio described some of the intent of the program as follows: “We want to help the children explore life lessons while encouraging self-accountability, self-acceptance and continuous self-development. This means going outside the box of the traditional school approach, not just teaching life lessons and skills, but also stirring their curiosity about why these lessons and skills are important. When they learn about kindness, we want them to also understand why it is important to be kind, what it means to be kind, and how kindness affects both them and society. We also want them to practice kindness, to make the scout accountable to themselves and kind for a good reason.”
The Cop Scouts program has amazing potential to positively impact young people’s lives and hopefully steer them away from the type of criminal behavior our agency recently experienced with the three boys who tried to steal two Kias. These kids could really have benefited from Cop Scouts. Cops and kids have always had a special relationship, and Cop Scouts is taking it to the next level.
NEXT: Building strong relationships with the community is essential for effective law enforcement. In this video, Gordon Graham discusses key strategies for enhancing community engagement.
