Op Eds and Opinion Pieces by Strategies for Youth

Two states are leading the way in training and accountability guidance and policies aiming to prevent tragedy and trauma. Arrest should be viewed as the least desirable outcome.

Last year’s police reform law created standards regarding the use of deadly force, no-knock warrants, dogs, tear gas, and pellet guns by law enforcement, requiring that the training of law enforcement officers and guidance on use of force include “developmentally appropriate de-escalation and disengagement tactics, techniques and procedures and other alternatives to the use of force for minor children.”

In Massachusetts, children as young as 12 years old can be arrested and prosecuted. So, wouldn’t you like to know the Boston Police Department’s policy on how and when to Mirandize a child?

In 1986, the Surgeon General released a report entitled The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, concluding that secondhand smoke was a major health risk to nonsmokers. We are now learning something similar about the long-term mental health risks of secondhand exposure to police violence, especially for children of color.

When it comes to police reform, the kids are not all right. That is apparent from videos and news accounts that assault us almost daily. Over and over again, we see instances of children?some as young as six years old?and teenagers being needlessly traumatized at the hands of law enforcement.

While she cried for her father, police pepper-sprayed and forced her into a patrol car. This girl isn’t alone, and states need procedures to protect them. A mom called police saying her 9-year-old daughter was suicidal and threatening her in Rochester, New York. The first officer to respond to the incident, which happened last week, called dispatch for backup, and six cars rushed to the scene. Officers gave the girl little time to calm down, while dragging her in the snow, cuffing her and shoving her in a patrol car. When she refused to put her feet into the vehicle, and continually cried out for her father, officers pepper-sprayed her into submission.

“Police stops of young people may unintentionally increase their engagement in criminal behavior,” write SFY Executive Director, Lisa H. Thurau and Adam D. Fine of Arizona State University in this Op-Ed for The Crime Report.

As if on cue, the same day that Strategies for Youth released its survey of state legislatures’ training requirements for police in schools — commonly referred to as school resource officers, or SROs — a video of a school resource officer slamming an 11-year-old girl’s head into a concrete wall went viral. The clip of a clearly traumatized child pleading for a male adult police officer to “get off of me” as he screams at her, while a school official meekly protested the treatment, vividly illustrates the report’s central premise: that the SRO program, as it exists in most states, desperately needs training and oversight.

It is frequently noted that middle ground is increasingly hard to find these days. This is particularly true in the emo­tionally charged debates about how to keep schools safe. On one side are those who argue that school police-or School Resource Offi­cers (SROs)-are necessary to keep students and staff safe, particularly from the horrific shootings that have become altogether too commonplace.

Training standards could protect officers by setting clear expectations for performance, while increasing consistency of law enforcement interactions with youth.