Making Collaboration Work:
Linking Law Enforcement
with Community Resources for Youth

by Everett Littlefield

February, 2004

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here are notes from Everett Littlefield taken when LACP attended a recent day-long conference held at UCLA. The event was well attended and featured workshops and speakers who a have primary responsibility for dealing with LA's most troubled youth, especially those involved in gangs.

Moderator: Dr. Joseph Nunn, UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research

Crime rate in Santa Monica is similar to the whole country of Sweden; is the same as Bogotá, Columbia.

There is a need for collaboration in assisting youth at risk and turn them away from gangs. We need to work together.

Who are these youth at risk? Why does everyone have a different perception of the problem? The LAPD's perception is different than the public's. Do we believe that our perception is right by looking at this problem through some organizational lens? Do youth become at risk because of depression, delinquency, or lack of education? How can we overcome our narrow viewpoint when looking at a problem?

There are three Guidelines when thinking about collaboration:

1. Agree to disagree. This way you stay in the process by pulling out some common ground and move to other areas.

2. Agree to address my concerns that are different from yours.

3. Remain open to the perspective of others.

UCLA Chancellor Albert Camesale

More than half of the students at UCLA are from Los Angeles County. "At Risk Youth Programs" are at risk. We have to make resources available; our young people are our most valuable resource.

Roberta Yang, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety

The City of Los Angeles is reaching out to partner with UCLA with craft innovative solutions. How can we help our youth succeed and have productive choices? We need to give meaning to Community Policing by building a relationship with the community and reducing violence. This is being done by reinstating the Senior Lead (SLO) Officer program, have available preventive services such as, LA Best after school program and LA Bridges. Young people need safe places to go after school that offer them hope for the future that provides better opportunities than gangs.

The law enforcement community needs to know where the Community Based Organizations (CBO's) are that provide preventive services to youths at risk and refer them to these services.

Councilmember Alex Padilla

The Los Angeles community is getting younger and crime amongst each other has increased through gangs. Success is when we work together, and we cannot look at this problem in isolation. We need to look at the family, the schools and other positive alternatives such as the Jeopardy Program, Community in Schools, and the Youth Council.

Sheriff Leroy Baca

Who has not worked with gangs? He mentioned the Vita program in the Pico Rivera area. There is a plea in the community to stop the bleeding! We cannot solve the problem of gangs by "arresting our way out of it". Membership in gangs needs to be stopped. The LAPD needs 12,000 officers (now has 9,200) and the LA County Sheriff Dept. needs 10,000 officers. Without further resources and manpower, we will not be able to accomplish reducing crime.

LAPD Assistant Chief George Gascon, Chief of Operations

The community has to work together by engaging in prevention. Then when everything else fails, we use the option of enforcement. The human cost of crime is staggering; one homicide costs $1 million dollars for such services provided by the law enforcement community and the medical and court systems. There is also the emotional impact of homicide. Unless you feel the impact of a homicide, you won't identify yourself with it or do anything about it.

With a 22% reduction in violent crime in 2003, it has been estimated that it saved about $1/2 billion dollars in cost; as well as about $315 million dollars in youth related crimes.

The police cannot do it alone. Preventive activities need to be in the schools and community based organizations. The LAPD should be a partner with these organizations. It is too expensive for the LAPD to be into prevention and intervention programs alone.

The Law Enforcement agencies need both funding and community support. We either pay up front or pay later. It costs $30,000 to send youths to state prison, but only $15,000 to send them to college.

William "Blinky" Rodrequez, Executive Director of Community in Schools of Greater Los Angeles in San Fernando Valley

We deal with what is: guns and violence, youth killing youth. We have extended an olive branch to the LAPD, the LAUSD, UCLA and Cal State Northridge.

We have LA Bridges I (deals with mid schools in the Housing Projects) and LA Bridges II (deals with hard core gangs) as prevention and intervention programs in San Fernando Valley. It is a tragic time and we have to come together with our hearts as well as with our heads. We have been part of the San Fernando Coalition on Gangs. We have kept our doors open. We need each other.

What is the perception of our culture? It has written off the bastard child and the person who is trying to help is perceived as a leper.

How do you stop the bleeding? We need to stop the bleeding first before doing the surgery.

Robert Aries, President Communities in Schools of Greater Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley

He asks: What role can I play? We either deal with the symptoms or we deal with the cause. To do that, it will take meaningful equal partnership to deal with the causes. There is a crisis; there is no quick fix. As practitioners, we have to be pro-active, not reactive.

If any child fails, a part of us fails. Some of the programs have developed a partnership with us. Policing in Los Angeles is now more relevant to the streets. The agencies, non profit organizations and individual donors, need to reach out and connect with the grassroots organizations, and ask, "How do we help those persons in need?" It is not just looking at getting more money to support programs.

The Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council (JJCC) of the Probation Dept. has 20 probation officers on campuses throughout the city who supervise more that 20-30 youth who are on probation while at school.

LA Bridges II deals with the hard-core gang members by providing prevention and intervention programs. The youth need gainful employment that can be obtained through the Work Source Center, (Workforce Investment Act (WIA) a city-funded program that provides an array of job related services in collaboration with local educational agencies, businesses, industry, community and other CBO's The youth need economic stability, love, total affirmation and encouragement to fulfill their dreams.

Gilbert Bautista Supervisor, Intensive Gang Supervision Program, Los Angeles County Probation

Suppression is needed to protect the community, however he feels that more alternatives are needed such as intervention. He is blessed to see the impact that he has seen in turning around some the gang member's lives.

Officer Stephen Erickson, LAPD Harbor Area who heads up the Harbor Juvenile Impact Program

The Harbor Juvenile Impact Program was started in 1998 by now Assistant Chief George Gascon. The program is a boot camp structure in collaboration with the LAUSD who provide referrals to the program. What makes the program work? A parenting class is mandatory and the broad goal is to send the graduates of the program into the Explorer or Jeopardy program and eventually become a police officer. The Juvenile Impact Program provides diverse instruction that is focused, and provides discipline, in building self-esteem, accountability, integrity, responsibility, and physical challenges. An honor graduate of the program is awarded a cash scholarship program from the Hitachi Corp. and Kaiser Permanente.

Renee McArthur, Parenting Teacher, LAUSD Harbor Adult School for the Juvenile Impact Program

The parent is the most integral part of the equation. There are no classes in the LAUSD Middle or High Schools on how to be an effective parent to young teenagers on the verge of becoming delinquent. These parents need to not only deal with embarrassment of their children's behavior, but overcoming the fear they feel for them. The Harbor Adult School provides a support group for the parents, where they can feel comfortable talking about dealing with their children's behavior and influence it. They have a Parent Bible that they give to the parents.

Antowanine Richardson, Project Director/Facilitator, the Pacific Institute 1-800-426-3660

We have to challenge our perceptions. Some of the soft barriers are our habits, beliefs, expectations, and attitudes. How do we get them? It is by conditioning. Take the term 'youth at risk' - it is already putting a negative connotation not only on the community dealing with the problem, but also on the youth themselves. By exploring our perception of these so-called "youth at risk", we only see what we believe that which sometime is furthest from the truth. We can't fall into stereotyping them.

These are some of the perceptions that people may have of youth at risk:

1. The youth are mad at society because someone has failed them. They don't have parents and what they really need is love and attention.

2. Incarceration is wasting our money. Some of them need to be jailed.

3. Can one person make a difference?

The mind is broken down into 3 categories:

1. In the Conscious mind is where we receive information, perception through our senses of sight, sound, smell, and touch.

2. In the subconscious mind, which is like a hard drive, that is mostly negative and dwells on remembering those things that are bad. After we perceive something, we associate it with what is already there. We are usually at the mercy of what is stored there. For example if youth are told they are a menace, a delinquent, they will go out and act like it!

3. The Creative subconscious is where we can evaluate and make decisions. Persons need to have the ability to control positive or negative thoughts with a strong self image and make positive choices for themselves. Just being cognizant of the information coming into the conscious mind whether it is TV, music or newspaper, we have the ability to choose.

Being aware of the creative subconscious enables persons to resolve and solve conflicts. The conscious mind does not like anxiety, but wants to feel relaxed, but while in a comfort zone, it prevents growth. The creative subconscious creates energy and drive, and you need to ask: What do I want? Move toward goals of your own or you will be doing what others are doing. Critical thinking skills are needed for our youth.

We need to volunteer our time and show youth that they can change their life with positive choices.

Reverend Eugene Rivers, President, National Ten Point Leadership Foundation

In the early years as a black activist minister in Boston, he worked closely with Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton, then Chief of Police of Boston in 1993, in reducing violent crime more than 60 %. (In 1990 there were 152 homicides in Boston and by 1999 there were only 31. In 2001 it had gone up to 68 and dropped down slightly to 60 in 2002.)

He and other ministers would accompany police officers to homes of delinquent youth. When he first got involved in getting help to address crime from the Boston City Mayor, and City Managers, he said he was "blown off" by the bureaucrats as a "do gooder", an idiot, a sucker, a victim", by getting involved in fighting to reduce violence in Boston..

It is very difficult to collaborate with public institutions. How do you break those institutional barriers? There is a need for a new collaborative spirit and it seems to be working better between the law enforcement agencies and City agencies.

He said that what you need is muscle and juice to get support from city agencies, and if they do not want to help out, inflict pressure on the city agencies, by threatening them by going to the media. You really can't depend on city funding. Solutions are derived from organizing, coming together and asking where is my muscle? Get it and use it intelligently.

The question is "How do I learn to play the game fighting against a monopoly"? In order to get in the door, you need to build personal relationships; vertical network with other groups, and build trust with city managers. There is a bridge and be willing to walk towards each other and meet each other half way. Make it a two way street.

We need a list of good donors and tell them we are doing the work. How do we get access to the donors? Who are the developers and what about the unions as a source of developing jobs for youth? Get all the names of the Commissioners - that is usually a closed circle. Learn how to play the charity game. To get funding, you have to have verifiable tangible results by showing accomplishments..

Where does the money come from to support viable organizations? There are three areas that are available. The Skybox is where the money is, from those individuals who support needy programs? Only 4% comes from corporations and about 76% from individual who are the big donors. The other areas is the Air box where there is politics to play and a lot of "winking" going on and then there is the ground box where there are not a lot of open doors.

The Black and Brown communities have to take ownership of the violence that is going on in their community if they expect to reduce it. Blaming the law enforcement agencies is not the answer!!

Michael Prichard, Director of Special Projects, Liberty Hill Foundation

We are entering tough financial times and the private sector cannot plug in the holes. We are not looking more closely at funding operating budgets of some of the organizations we support.

Robert Saenz, Assistant General Manager, Community Development Department

LA Bridges now funds 27 Community Base Organizations. (CBO's) The CBO's are contractors and partners with us contracted out by the City of Los Angeles. There is a need for the CBO's to build trust with us in order to work effectively.

Maria Cedillas, Commissioner, Commission on Children, Youth and their Families

The LAUSD gets $16 billion dollars a year. We have to insist that they collaborate back with the community. Schools are central to building a village around schools to influence youth ages 4yrs to 17 yrs of age to stay out of gangs. There is a need for re-entry programs; such as counseling, and job placement for gang members who get out of prison, who are looked upon by some youth as heroes.