some are at the flight or fight as my esteemed colleague said earlier. cognitive behavior, adolescent brain development. also, there is this thing called communication that some people learn as they get older and some people are trained to do from very young. what is it that our great city and many cbo's have been trying to do is teach communication skills to help them be successful in society and school? before getting into my testimony, please remember those final moments when you were vulnerable. think about what you could or could not do to put them -- yourselves in these good or bad situations. my first point would be i worked with the bay area urban league. we teach policy debate. pass of the -- half of the police commission is lawyers, you know about debate. you know it is a challenging,

rigorous activity that requires research, analysis, critical thinking, and public speaking. some of those traits and mentioned are some of the things you do when you went through -- when you interact with professionals and people of the community. at the center there are two things we strive to do. i mention this because this is on our website. this is something my colleagues have been striving to teach me. in -- intellectual skills and social steam is something you need to navigate. -- ssocial esteem is something you need to navigate. activities -- i have noticed a change within myself and the students i have served. i used to go to downtown high school. i graduated from there and i was a debater for that school. now i am a program assistant and i teach debate.

the student who was up here was my student. there was another gentleman with a hooded sweatshirt that spoke clearly and concisely about his needs in the community. those are two prime examples of young males who come from different backgrounds who have struggled in their education and came up here and spoke beautifully. with the help of debate and activity, they came up here and did just that. that was the skill set that was given to students in the community. that is a possible interaction they could have for themselves and be accountable for. do all students have that opportunity to get this type of extracurricular activity in training? they do not. what do some students resort to if they're not taught the skills? vulnerability. they are vulnerable. they're in a place in time within themselves were they do not know what to do or how to react. what is that they do? two things. they communicate or they fight.

nine times that of 10, that is where some of our students find themselves. fighting or arguing with the police. does this put them in a good predicament? no. it is something they must do in order to be effective members of society. with debate and -- with cbo's students can learn some of these skills. i would like to also further discuss that. with this activity and learning how to communicate, it works on both sides of the table. it works for the police and for students. as a peer educator, two recommendations. open dialogue with students. the police can possibly be trained on or something they can do for themselves. you do not have to pull outside the bus stop and talk to students from inside the car.

you can park around the corner and walk up on them and address them and treat them as people or as young adults. the flight or fight and the cognitive behavior does not kick in so fast and they are at a point where they do not know how to react, where they are amateur or vulnerable or at the best they can be. let them see the situation and react so they can have good interaction. when they go to carc, they have their story straight. they're not in a very vulnerable stage. also, i would like to say that learning how to communicate is very key. when students communicate with police and police communicate with students we can have this open dialogue and we can progress to do better things. we're here to advocate and make change. we're not here to criticize or provoke any thoughts or

feelings. thank you for time. president mazzucco: thank you for your time. you might want to take these skills and go to law school someday. there is a recommendation at the table. that concludes that 30-minutes for that -- the 30 minutes for the presentations. we will look into the police department's presentation and the bocc presentation. >> i am sorry. there are two more. patricia and david are still here. >> they are gone. >> this evening. -- good evening. police youth commissioners, director, command staff, and our

distinguished presenters and the public. i am commanding officer of the sfpd special victims unit. we would like to briefly present you some highlights of the many long term positive relationships the sfpd has established with our city's youth. and if we are ready to go. why don't we start out with chief suhr's vision where a police officer's role is to prepare our youth for tomorrow's challenges. while we're waiting for that, i do not see chief suhr for a second. i am sorry, you snuck up behind me. if you wanted to comment on your vision here. as i stated, every police

officer is looked at as a mentor and to take advantage of that opportunity at any given time. that commitment may be as brief as you just heard our previous speaker, engaging a youth at a bus stop. doing it in a respectful manner. ok. as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, we bring our internal family communication skills to our police assignments. interacting with us that home can be just as challenging. we are peace officers that are guided by a strong internal drive to do the right thing. at times, this may include explaining to use how to make good, lawful choices that will open doors of opportunity for one as they enter the job market. or perhaps demonstrating by

example the interaction with police officers can be positive and helpful. i would like to call upon commander beale to discuss training that is relevant to tonight historic meeting. >> good evening. on behalf of capt. -- who as we speak, she is on a flight to learn about more additional training we can present. i can give you an overview of what we teach our officers in the police academy and over the course of their career on trading-related issues with youth and juvenile. upon entering the academy, every officer receives 32 hours of basic trading. six hours of that with crimes against children. six hours of juvenile law procedures which include protection of rights and safety of juvenile. 14 hours of interpersonal communication skills is taught. two more hours of internet --

interviewing. a bathetic glistening skills and report building. two hours are spent on department general order 7.01 and two hours of gang awareness. as the officers moved through their career, every two years they come back for continued professional training including interpersonal communications to enhance positive interaction. the class objective is to orientate officers to utilize communication and the escalation skills during interactions with the public. officers review techniques to recognize and interpret non- verbal cues and precursors of adult as well as a juvenile. the fact that juveniles have not developed their impulse control drive and related applications is also addressed. the officer decides that he or she would like to be a school resource officer, they go

through post certified course which includes an emotional issues and fundamental counseling, interviewing, and problem-solving skills. our academy staff works closely in a program called every 15 minutes. a goes into a high school, interacts with the youth at the high school and with students to put together a large scale play on drunk driving and the ramifications of drunk driving. the kids then learned -- the student body learns that every 15 minutes in our country, someone is hurt by a drunk driver. these are the programs we have going on at the academy. i would like to pass this back. thank you. >> thank you. you heard earlier this evening a great deal of testimony regarding some of our programs and i would like to take this opportunity now to hear from some of those infamous youth

program coordinators. first up is the police activities league executive director, ms. lorraine woodruff long. >> good evening. i am not lorraine. i am rick bruce, the president of the san francisco police activities league. i would like to give you a brief synopsis of what pal's are. it started 100 years ago. officers were sent out to find playgrounds for the children living in new york city's tenements. what he decided to do because he could not find enough vacant lots is they cordoned off streets and they call that the new york city police to its program. each had a police of the sir assigned to ensure the children were safe. that grew into the police activities league and in 1959, a group of san francisco police

officers got together, they went to the police credit union and took out a personal loan for $5,000 and started the san francisco p.a.l. which was the first west of the mississippi. we have sent 5000 kids through the program every year. you will see graduates and kids in every walk of life in san francisco. chief suhr was a p.a.l. kid. there were two 49ers. the mission in 1959 was to keep kids off the streets and on the fields and that mission has not changed. i would like to introduce loraine woodruff long. >> thank you. this has been a wonderful experience for me. i am a parent of two teens, raising them in san francisco

and going to san francisco schools. seeing all of you warms my heart. i am going to keep it brief. i want to expand on some of the things we have been doing over three years. i joined the organization three years ago. at that time the police commission had commissioned the police executive research forum to do a study of the police department and out of that, we took that document and use that to embrace the san francisco police department p.a.l. to make sure we were supporting community policing. we have organized and have been pushing on in our organization. the first was community policing and making sure our organization is creating opportunities for police to come in contact with children. we as rick said, we have 5000 kids in our programs every year. we have year-round sports and leadership activities.

800 volunteers working with our organization every year. that includes civilians and police. importantly, what we do -- we have been looking at research and studies. one of the things we know that for an adult to grow up to a healthy adult, they need to have grown up with five adults who are positive role models for them. some people are fortunate to have two parents, grandparents and their coverage. what we're doing is we are creating touch points for other adults to come in contact with kids and provide healthy adult role models. we do that -- we have several different ways we work with the police department. from very broad into very small. sports like our football program has been in the western addition of campbell field. this year, chief suhr and det.

[unintelligible] all fall. one was an officer who left year earlier. he is working with those kids. those of the kinds of things we're working with the captains and -- across the sfpd. they're looking for ways to work with our programs and to provide personal contacts with kids, with adults, and with the community. one of the things that has been a very big focus in the last three years, we have all law- enforcement cadet program. i have fired tear for anyone who is interested. using the perf report, we had a cadet program almost our entire 50 years. we saw that we needed to be growing our own. growing people from the community they're serving. we took it upon ourselves to

grow and change that program. it was under the leadership of then-captioain suhr. graduates are placed in internships they're doing around in the stations. they're provided additional training and are working alongside police in the stations and at community events. we went from under 20 kids two years ago. we will have 80 youth from the ages of 14-20 in the program. there will graduate and work in entered -- in internships. as of july. we are accepting applications and we are looking for 20 kids to do the summer cadet academy. they are doing that program at the police academy. trained by the same people who are training officers coming in and we will have a new class for that this summer as well. i want to emphasize there has

been the last three years have been such a positive shift for p.a.l. and even more so with greg suhr. and having that be a priority. we are working on expanding those opportunities and connections with police and kids that have been making such a big impact. thank you very much. thanks for staying for such a long time for this service for youth and the police. goodbye. president mazzucco: thank you. as a native born bay view resident, i was also a member of p.a.l. i would like to ask officer mike rivera to give a brief presentation. >> good evening. i am officer mike.

i have run the wilderness program for eight years. we bring in low-income youth together with the police officers to share a challenging adventure. we brought down barriers and foster better relations between police, use, parents, and teachers. we are building relationships between police officers and use. we have the use developed leadership, communication skills, teamwork, building self respect and understanding one's own ability -- one's own abilities. we can -- they can do more than they think they can. we help our youth experience life outside their apartment and gain appreciation for nature. once they have gone through this life is not the same. we engage our use through three day packing -- backpacking trips. the hike to angel island and

various parks throughout the bay area. kayaking in richardson bay, and sailing in san francisco bay. most of these trips, the officers are dressed as i am come in uniform. the children see a uniform. by the end of the trip, they see a person. thank you for your time. president mazzucco: thank you very much. [applause] >> you got to see the letters of appreciation that come in after every one of these trips. it is incredible. next, officer bob ford who will discuss the youth fishing program. >> good evening. i am the program coordinator for the san francisco fishing program. it was established in saw -- 1968 when a few off-duty beat officers wanted to provide children that they -- with a summer adventure.

the program caught on. the officers set up the program and set up a 5 a1c 3 501 -- 5013c program. we take children from ages of 12-18 for free and is supported by volunteers. we talk to the children and instruct them on how to fish. we also instruct them on how to help out others. 60 on the boat, and team building. every summer, we take out up to 1500 children from various youth organizations throughout the city. some of the groups that participate are gilman playground, eureka valley program, richmond playground, telegraph hill neighborhood, cameron house jcyc, and hunters point youth groups. the program teaches children with disabilities. those who have hearing and sight

impaired how to fish. the program took on an educational component four years ago. the children can go to the aquarium and learn about the fish they have caught and observe them in a marine environment. a marine biologist answers the questions. perhaps the thing i am most proud of, the -- it is a featured youth program at the international association of chiefs of police conference in chicago. thank you. president mazzucco: thank you. that program was started by herb lee, one of the first chinese- american police officers to encourage kids from chinatown to join the police department. i used to go fishing with them once a week. >> thank you. that is correct. next presenting will be officer rockwell, the scuffing --

discussing the sfpd operation dream. >> good evening. i am rafael rockwell. this past year is a year i coordinated operation dream. it was started by the housing task force police officers in 1993. they designed a program to help provide holiday spirit and cheer and guests and so forth to less fortunate children throughout the san francisco housing authority properties. it has been a successful -- it has been successful throughout the years due to the dedication and commitment of san francisco police officers. you can ask generations of officers who committed their own personal time in doing field trips, different seasonal events, other programs where kids are impacted -- as a whole.

their mentor, they are groomed, there is callous -- callas' kids throughout the communities who have received beneficial sat -- accolades. including backpack giveaways and toy drives and camping. ski trips and so on. we are trying to reinvest in operation dream and get it back to its luster. with the support of members of the san francisco police department and the commission, we will be doing that. thank you. president mazzucco: thank you. i believe the next component of tonight's presentation is from the special victims unit, internet safety and cyber- bullying. as technology has increased, we have seen, unfortunately, incidents involving our youth. people to -- taking advantage of them through the internet.

the officer presents to schools. they have been expanded to various pta groups. interacting regarding social networking through technology has opened topics of discussion that did not exist 10 to 15 years ago. a lot of it is about safety and encouraging communication between the use and their adults or caretakers in discussing how to safely navigate the internet. it has become so dangerous. and with that, we will move on to our next topic. which i believe involves the chief. >> before i go into the program, was everyone else wondering what i was wondering when that little girl came up here? are you smarter than a fifth grader? i am not sure i am.

she was pretty sure. anyway, we came up with a new program on top of all these other programs that i can tell you. ever since i was a regular officer, we as a group could not be prouder of all these programs. 1500 kids, thousands of kids, 1981, 1951 for p.a.l. this one is starting now. i was watching one of the nba basketball games. there is a new commercial. i do not know if we have that video. lebron james sponsors a video where a kid is slipping in his bed in high school. all the sudden, his alarm goes off and hits the snooze alarm and goes back to sleep. he is not going to high school. he is in an sro hotel and he

drops through that and he is a homeless guy in an alley. the message is every 26 seconds, that every 26 seconds, somebody does not graduate from high school. we decided, we are also -- always telling people they have to graduate from high school. in conversations with young people, they would say, colleges forever away. i do not know if i'm going to get out of high school. we decided we would shorten that finish line and emphasize graduating from high school. if you compare the numbers up, these numbers are real. someone drops out of high school every 26 seconds. a high-school graduate, i want the u.s. mission to pay attention, lives nine years longer than a drop out. they make 50% more money than a drop out.

we want you to live longer and be more successful. but the downside is that 94% of the homicide victims under the age of 25 are dropouts and the suspects are just about as high. 75% of the crime committed -- i am sorry. nearly 75% of the jail population are high-school dropouts and almost 80% of the crime in this country is committed by high school dropouts. for people that say we are suggesting that kids with challenges cannot graduate from college, that is not true. i am one of them. i had both parents at home. i went to city college. but miami had my high school diploma when i became a police officer.

we did fine. later, i had to go to college because i wanted to be chief of police. it is important to graduate from college. another important statistic is that every person that goes to college had to graduate from high school. you just have to graduate high school and you can do well but you can do better if you go to college. that is the message for that. we are going to the schools. potoo whatever high school -- leave that there. we have already been to washington high school. the principal spoke today. balboa, carmichael middle school. we go to thurgood marshall next week. you would think we were a road show if.

we are booked into may. if anybody is watching on television, if you want us to come out and talk, we will talk to anybody but prinicpals has been getting the move -- principals have been getting the most tardy students. we will get you through high school and then you get 50% more money and you live nine years longer. it is a good story. one of the things that is a part of our program, we want to give kids that stay in a taste, we're looking to get jobs for young people. we started the clean team. from 1996, 900 kids have gotten jobs. jobs. there are minimum wage but they