News & Events

Lawmakers are expecting a bill from Gov. Charlie Baker that would mandate a certification process for police officers on Wednesday, vowing to pass law enforcement reforms next month before the current legislative session ends.

Right now, the public’s outrage is fierce enough that it may force some change. Young people, as always, are showing us the way. But it is not fair, right or realistic to expect youth to carry all the water… Experience has shown me that what is needed for real, enduring reform starts with the political will at all levels to insist on reforming law enforcement policies and practices in America.

At what age can you be charged with a crime in Texas? The question appears on a screen in front of a group of teenagers at the Boys and Girls Club in Northeast Austin on a recent Tuesday. Half the room is deliberating as a timer slowly ticks down.

In a nation torn apart by school shootings, the question remains: Is what’s being done to combat the violence effective? On Nov. 3, a local parent shared an alarming post from an anonymous user on social media threatening the Morenci Unified School District.

The second part of this article, the author discusses SRO oversight and a new report from Strategies for Youth has found less than half of states have legislation requiring SRO training with even fewer requiring de-escalation training or adolescent development training.

While the federal government has spent close to $1 billion to deploy police in our nation’s public schools, it remains “unclear how effective” the School Resource Officers (SROs) are in preventing the school tragedies that have rocked the nation for 20 years–tragedies that are used as a justification for their deployment, according to a new study from the nonprofit group Strategies for Youth (SFY).

Strategies for Youth provided peer review for this 2019 report issued by the Cutler Institute at the University of Southern Maine. SFY reports are also cited as source material for the study.

Lisa Thurau from SFY discusses the number of children arrested across the country on KNX 1070 Newsradio in Los Angeles.

The recent arrests of two 6-year-old students in Orlando, which prompted outrage and the firing of the officer who restrained one child’s hands with flex cuffs, mirrors a persistent problem confronting law enforcement and schools with thousands of children arrested annually and treated like “mini-adults,” experts said.

A police officer kneels down face to face with a child. “I’m sorry I stole,” the child cries. “It’s OK. Just don’t do it again,” the officer replies. In another scene, a child looks upward to the officer…