New police program aims to help keep kids off road to crime New police program aims to help keep kids off road to crime (June 30, 2004)

By Rebecca Wallace
Almanac Staff Writer

Short of having a time machine, how do you find a kid who's going to commit a crime and stop it before it happens?

Menlo Park police say they have a pretty good idea of where to intervene.

"Our officers respond to thousands and thousands of calls every year. We get to know repeat calls and family situations," Cmdr. Greg Rothaus said. Some kids are being neglected, running away, cutting classes, or hanging out with gangs, and the officers know about it.

Now, thanks to a $7,500 donation from the Live Oak Lions Club in Menlo Park, the police department will put in place an early intervention program for youth seen as at-risk. It will include parent support groups, decision-making workshops, educational tutoring and counseling at no charge to the participants, Cmdr. Rothaus said.

Lions Club president Laura Warner said the club chose the police department for the award because of its "sound strategy for intervening early with young people."

Statistics show why it's important to take action early with youngsters, Cmdr. Rothaus said. According to the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, nearly half the people arrested in 2001 for arson and one-third arrested for vehicle theft were juveniles.

The police department's new program will supplement its existing Youth and Family Services Unit, which was started last year to help keep first-time misdemeanor offenders, ages 10 to 17, from committing another crime. Kids arrested on a minor charge, such as vandalism, can have the charge dropped if they comply with the unit's "restorative justice" program.

Participants undergo mediation with their victims, visit San Quentin to see the hard truth about incarceration, and go through peer counseling. Since it was launched last fall, the program has graduated 12 students, Cmdr. Rothaus said.

"These kids made a bad decision, but they're not bad kids," he said.

A $23,000 grant from San Mateo County's Criminal Justice Council fueled that program, enabling the police department to hire counseling staff.

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