This week's feature on SCPD Community-Oriented Policing focuses on our commitment to Youth Programs. The 4th installment continues to examine the strategies and practices SCPD officers utilize to engage and collaborate with community members to build trust, and create mutual respect.
1st Highlights Community-Oriented Policing Tradition
2nd Community-Oriented Policing Provides Transparency, Accountability
3rd Community-Based Partnerships Reduce Crime
1st Highlights Community-Oriented Policing Tradition
2nd Community-Oriented Policing Provides Transparency, Accountability
3rd Community-Based Partnerships Reduce Crime
Youth Programs Help Santa Cruz Police Department’s Community Policing Efforts Reach Kids
Building trust between youth and police officers can have a preventative effect on juvenile crime and victimization, while improving quality of life in neighborhoods. Creating these relationships with youth has been a focus of Santa Cruz Police Department’s Community-Oriented Policing for years.
Reaching new heights! SCPD invests in school youth programs.
More than six years ago, SCPD launched the Personally Responsible Individual Development in Ethics (PRIDE) program in conjunction with Santa Cruz City Schools. The multi-faceted approach to early gang prevention engages with middle school-age kids, usually 11-15 years old, to educate, mentor and guide them in how to make healthy choices.
“The PRIDE Program gives us the opportunity to build lasting relationships with students, which can positively change the way they interact with law enforcement for a lifetime,” SCPD Deputy Chief Rick Martinez said.
In 2014, the Krassow Foundation made a generous donation to SCPD PRIDE and BASTA. Randy Krassow stated, “We are proud to support the programs and want to thank Deputy Chief of Police Rick Martinez and Bryan Wall, Retired County Office of Education Deputy Superintendent, for their leadership. I want to especially acknowledge and thank Officer Joe Hernandez.
Joe brought the PRIDE program to my attention several years ago. He is committed to providing opportunities to our community’s youth and giving them the tools they need to succeed".
The program is geared toward middle school teenagers — boys and girls — at risk of joining a gang. The 2016 session began in November with two cohorts of 21 students, one from Mission Hill Middle School, the other from Branciforte Middle School.
“I think this is an unbelievable bridge for the police department because they are forming personal bonds with these kids,” PRIDE volunteer Robert Orrizzi said. “One on one, these kids are great. But they need help, they need to see another way of living.”
“The PRIDE Program gives us the opportunity to build lasting relationships with students, which can positively change the way they interact with law enforcement for a lifetime,” SCPD Deputy Chief Rick Martinez said.
The program is geared toward middle school teenagers — boys and girls — at risk of joining a gang. The 2016 session began in November with two cohorts of 21 students, one from Mission Hill Middle School, the other from Branciforte Middle School.
“I think this is an unbelievable bridge for the police department because they are forming personal bonds with these kids,” PRIDE volunteer Robert Orrizzi said. “One on one, these kids are great. But they need help, they need to see another way of living.”
Robert Orrizzi & Company explore aviation careers at Watsonville Airport
The biweekly classes are geared toward considering good and bad choices. Good choice classes introduce kids to positive activities and show them options for their future, should they stay out of gangs. Field trips to UC Santa Cruz and Google, bowling, horseback riding and a day trip to San Francisco are among the highlights for kids.
PRIDE Students and Mentors on Field trip to Google Complex
Bad choice classes depict a different, darker future. Kids tour San Quentin State Prison, write their own obituaries, visit a cemetery, go through the jail booking process —including handcuffs and shackles — and do volunteer work at Salvation Army.As part of PRIDE, youth in the class also are paired with a mentor, most of whom are UCSC students. The mentors help keep the kids accountable and encourage them toward pro-social activities.
Mentor recruitment seminar at UCSC
“Most of these kids are lacking in attention,” said Orrizzi, who has personally mentored five youths since he started volunteering with PRIDE. “They just want someone to know them and be interested in them.”Around the same time as PRIDE started, BASTA (Broad-Based Apprehension, Suppression, Treatment & Alternatives) expanded from Watsonville into North County. BASTA is a countywide collaborative formed for the purpose of keeping schools and the community safe by reducing and preventing youth gang violence, school truancy, suspensions, expulsions, and alcohol and drug abuse.
BASTA creates a network of support around the youth and works to find the teen a “pro-social” activity, such as joining a sports team or getting a job, as well as working with a mentor. The collaboration works with about 20 kids each year.
“One of the things that works is noticing the first sign – the first drawings on their Pee-Chee folder or wearing gang colors,” said Michael Paynter, student services manager at the County of Office of Education, a BASTA partner. “Connecting them at that point with a sports program can be the simple solution.”
A few years ago, BASTA added a free summer sports camp in partnership with Santa Cruz City Schools that serves about 30 kids, many of whom are also case-managed through BASTA. Participants try out a new sport every week, and practices are led by local high school coaches with help from some of their student athletes who serve as teen mentors for participants. BASTA looks at the needs of the at-risk youth on case-by-case basis. Sometimes an action as simple as paying a sports team fee or buying cleats for a youth is all the intervention needed.
“I think for the right kids that small dose can turn things in the right direction,” Paynter said.
Beyond targeted programs like PRIDE and BASTA, SCPD officers connect with youth through the summer Teen Public Safety Academy.
The courses provide teenagers who are considering a career in public safety, or who are interested in learning more about public safety, the opportunity to gain an understanding of what it takes to become a police officer, a firefighter, a 911 dispatcher and other public safety jobs through direct observation and participation.
“These programs are proven and successful thanks to strong partnerships and a lot of people who care deeply about young people, year in and year out,” said Deputy Chief Martinez. “Building trust between police and our youth is an investment in kids’ futures, as well as the future of our whole community.”
LT. Flippo with Youth Grad/ Future Mentor and Officer Gomez at PRIDE graduation
If you'd like to learn more about SCPD's youth programs or become a mentor, visit www.santacruzpolice.com or contact Community Services at (831) 420-5952 or email: lgomez@cityofsantacruz.com
“I think for the right kids that small dose can turn things in the right direction,” Paynter said.
Beyond targeted programs like PRIDE and BASTA, SCPD officers connect with youth through the summer Teen Public Safety Academy.
SCPD also has a dedicated school resource officer who divides time between Harbor and Santa Cruz high schools, and Branciforte and Mission Hill middle schools. The officer presence on campus deters criminal influence while also developing positive relationships and open communication with students and school staff.
Full house of family & friends show up to support students at PRIDE graduation
If you'd like to learn more about SCPD's youth programs or become a mentor, visit www.santacruzpolice.com or contact Community Services at (831) 420-5952 or email: lgomez@cityofsantacruz.com
