Specialized Seminars

The purpose of these two-hour intensive seminars is to provide officers an exploration of specific topics for which they have requested more information. Seminars are presented by speakers who are renowned experts in the topic chosen and offer officers cutting edge research and information. These seminars are typically offered after the initial training sessions and provide officers an opportunity to discuss the application of what they have learned.

Topics include:

Policing Immigrant Youth:

Immigrant youth bring their own cultural viewpoints to everything in the U.S. including their views of and responses to police. First and second generation immigrant youth bring different perspectives to efforts to becoming American which can lead to involvement with the police. SFY seminars are customized to the cultures from which immigrant youth come and teach officers youths’ roles and responsibilities, education level, and relationships with police in these countries to support a more informed interaction with immigrant youth.

Recognizing and Responding to Teens’ with Mental Health Issues:

One out of every 5 youth experiences a diagnosable mental health disorder—typically depression or anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism spectrum disorders, and oppositional defiance disorder. While those are the most prevalent mental health issues an officer may encounter, bipolar disorder and , schizophrenia or psychosis which often see their onset in the late teens, are more problematic and present special issues for officers’ interactions with youth. This SFY seminar helps officers recognize the signs of these mental health issues and illnesses and learn how to interact in a way that reduces the potential of conflict and loss of control, as well as strategies for deciding whether to choose arrest or protective custody/referral to an emergency room.

Post-Incident Relationship-Building:

If your police department has recently been involved in an incident leading to a law suit for unreasonable or excessive use of force against a youth, or if your department has received an increasing number of complaints or bad press regarding treatment of youth, this SFY seminar offers tactics for rebuilding relationships between the department (at the CO and officer level) with youth and the community.

Policing Special Education Students:

School police and special education students with emotional and behavioral disabilities are often a volatile mix. School police are rarely given access to information on these youths’ special needs or what triggers these youths’ behaviors, much less legal requirements for special treatment of youth. This SFY seminar teaches officers both the specific aspects of special education law that constrains their responses to such youth and gives officers the psychological and psychiatric insight and skills to work with such youth effectively. (For more information, see Dr. Bostic’s school-based initiative in this realm at www.schoolpsychiatry.org)

Detention Decision-Making:

In states where police have the central responsibility for deciding whether to send youth to detention prior to their appearance in court, this SFY seminar offers police a clear understanding of how detention works and issues related to its impacts on youth and increased likelihood of recidivism. With the anticipated reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevent Act in 2010, the Act’s requirements of juvenile justice systems to reduce disproportionate minority confinement at the detention stage will require police departments to rethink their approach to and use of detention for youth. This SFY seminar helps departments develop a decision making process to reduce DMC, recidivism, and detain youth in a manner that comports with the law and the need of the youth and community.

Working with Parents of Arrested & Chronically Offending Youth:

One of the most difficult challenges in policing youth is working with youths’ parents. Some parents want to use police as enforcers of their authority at home and co-parent with police; other parents deny their children have done anything worthy of police interaction much less arrest. Understanding the continuum of parental responses as well as their motivation is critical for officers working with youth. Explaining the law, police procedures, and officers’ concerns about youths’ behavior to parents are key skills. This SFY seminar offers strategies and tactics, as well as department-wide protocols, for working with parents and promoting a problem-solving approach to working with families.