Legislative Advocacy
• States with laws requiring training of police officers in juvenile law and adolescent development
• States which have enacted laws creating commissions to develop youth oriented training for police.
• State legislatures with legislation under consideration requiring training of police officers in juvenile law and adolescent development
• No legislation or statute requiring officer training.
Ensuring Officers have the Training they Need
to Work with America’s Children & Youth:
One of SFY’s central goals is to ensure that American law enforcement has access to the skills, science of child and adolescent development, and training it needs to work with American children and youth. SFY promotes legislation requiring minimum levels of training for officers.
Most professionals working with children and youth are required to take rigorous training, undergo extensive certification procedures, and extensive apprenticeship before working with youth. American law enforcement has no such requirement, in spite of the fact that they work with children and youth in very extreme situations for which their lack of training can hamper their effectiveness and the success of outcomes.
Police who work with youth in non-incident situations, officers need to know how to communicate, to break the ice, and connect to youth in a positive, proactive manner that will invite youth to seek them out in the future.
In situations requiring police involvement—abuse and neglect, domestic violence, community violence, status offending and delinquency—officers need more skills to de-escalate conflict, approach youth successfully, conduct lawful interviews and interrogations, and develop relationships with affected youth that maintain respect for authority and the law.
The map above offers only two examples of state’s taking this important step. If you are interested in model legislation for your state, please contact Lisa H. Thurau at lht@strategiesforyouth.org.
|
