Divisions | Family Services Division | Youth Oriented Policing Unit
Youth Oriented Policing Overview
Contact Person: Sergeant Ricardo Rodriguez
(203) 946-6392
The Youth Oriented Policing initiative is a collaborative effort of the New Haven Police Department, the New Haven Public School System, as well as local social service and criminal justice agencies. It provides a coordinated and comprehensive linkage of youth development support agencies that begins in the schools and extends into the neighborhoods and homes of students. It teams School Resource Police Officers with School Security Officers and Aides, Truancy Program personnel, as well as linkage to the Office of Juvenile Probation, Community Mediation, and the Yale Child Study Center to provide the external guidance needed to effectively service youth at risk.
The joint effort focuses on going beyond maintaining a safe learning environment for students to strengthening familial support, promoting higher education, and guiding the student toward success in the job market. The police component enhances the capabilities of the Family Services Division by increasing supervisory and investigative personnel during evening hours and weekends to better address juvenile matters and support the collaboration. The Division's role helps provide an opportunity for better coordination between school officials and social service providers for continuity of services, which is vital to this undertaking.
The six components of the Youth Oriented Policing Initiative are:
- Safe Corridors - Provides security coverage through the assignment of strategically placed community patrol officers and school personnel (i.e. at schools and in their adjacent neighborhoods) to monitor the safe passage of students to and from school.
- School Day Problem-Solving - School Resource Officers work in conjunction with School Security Officers/Aides to respond to activities which disrupt the school, home or neighborhood environment and coordinate the appropriate follow-up to such. Police and school personnel problem-solve to proactively address problems. Matters are addressed through the investigation of incidents and criminal activity, classroom sessions to address violence and gang behavior, conflict resolution, and referrals for counseling sessions with students, parents and faculty.
- Truancy Intervention and Case Management - Four teams consisting of police, truancy officers, and drop-out prevention personnel make home visits and monitor known locations frequented by truant students. Team members coordinate the appropriate student support resources to provide case management and keep young people in school.
- Evening Police Coverage and Follow-Up - A sergeant and four detectives supplement personnel and provide continuity of police service to juvenile matters during evening hours and weekends. Among the activities they are responsible for include; follow-up activity to day incidents, serving arrest warrants, and appropriately addressing juvenile street gatherings.
- Coordination With Juvenile Probation - Juveniles on probation are closely monitored through information supplied by the Department of Juvenile Probation to encourage compliance of the conditions of the probation. Probation violations can result in heightened supervision, imposing a curfew or placement in a detention facility.
- Curfew Responses - Police will place emphasis on curfew compliance associated with conditions of probation imposed by the court or probation officers. Curfew situations will range from reliance on parental control to house arrest and are imposed on a case by case basis. Monitoring is done by parental report, home visits, electronic supervision, or officer on patrol observation. Positive behavior modification will result in curfew adjustment or removal to present a working goal for the young person on probation.
All participating agency members involved in the Youth Oriented Policing collaboration have gone through an orientation process to familiarize themselves with the protocol and promote interagency support.
