News & Events

Workshop helps parents de-escalate conflict with youth.

More than a few years ago, I was dispatched to a street robbery that had just occurred. I arrived at the apartment complex and found the victim, who waved me down. He advised that three guys had just robbed him. One held a knife while the other two pulled his wallet and keys from his pockets. They fled on foot. We got a good description of the suspects: All three appeared to be Hispanic males, late teens to early twenties. One of the suspects was described as much taller than the other two.

A group of high school students who organized a local March for Our Lives rally in March to advocate for stricter gun laws in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, didn’t want to stop there. So they encouraged Sen. Adam Morfeld to introduce an interim legislative study to examine school safety and Friday found themselves in front of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

The Nebraska Education Committee spent nearly five hours on Friday taking a deep dive into school safety. The rise in school shootings across the nation prompted discussion, with one thought being to get more guns into schools.

A model memorandum of understanding (MOU) governing the role of school resource officers (SROs) in Massachusetts schools was released today by Attorney General Maura Healey, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Remember that debate about school resource officers a couple of months ago? Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemiester does, and as a result, both school resource officers and school administrators are getting more training. “We want to ensure administrators and our SROs have a consistent message about the role of SROs,” Bliemiester said. “This is all part of an ongoing evolution to provide our officers and the administrators with what we believe is the most important roles the SROs will serve.”

Over the past week, a Facebook video went viral, showing an El Paso police officer drawing his gun on a group of Latino kids outside a community center and handcuffing the person taking the video. The video has drawn outrage — and rightly so — as an illustration of the urgent need for robust police policies and training emphasizing de-escalation and how to interact with youth.

Seven teens loitered in a San Francisco park, and before long two police officers shuffled over and started grilling them. “Get over here,” a female officer yelled. “Sit your ass down.” Five of the kids stared at the officer with wide eyes and promptly planted themselves on the ground. Two others crossed their arms and ignored the officer’s commands. Suddenly, the officer burst out laughing and hugged the flustered kids. “Sorry,” she said, “sorry!” This was the first role playing exercise of the day.

San Francisco police are attending a “Policing the Teen Brain” train-the-trainer session this week to prepare to train officers on improving their interactions with the city’s youth.

Lisa Thurau was a guest on the Kansas City, MO “Central Standard” show with host Michele Tyrene-Johnson, talking about profiling by proxy. For people of color and other minority groups being wrongfully reported to the police can be a real concern. “The Dangers of Profiling by Proxy.” is Segment 2 which begins at timecode 22:38.