welcome to urban update. i'm byron barnett. on the show this morning, we'll have some great news about one of our city's high schools which recently won a nio also on the program information on the need for more big brothers and big sisters of color to serve the growing list of young boys and young girls that immediate this mentoring program. but up first as of two weeks ago 100 boston police officers are now wearing body cameras on the streets of boston. the initiative is six month pilot

would work in the wake of several high profile police shootings. the topic has been part of a larger national conversation around the police community. in-bot activists activists and e been pushing for body cameras since 2014 following the fatal shooting of michael brown. the organize, of the both police camera action teem citizen group that has advocated for cameras joins us this morning to development. welcome to urban update. great to see you. why don't we just start by talking about your rationale. you've been after indicating for a long time for body cameras. >> i think it's important to note that the reason why the both police camera action team was formed was not really the push for the idea that body cameras have necessary but really the push that the

shaping the policy. we knew cameras were going to be on boston police officers in 2016 or 2026. so if ever us to policy was the most important piece of this . now, hi mentioned we have had more shootings just this week. police shooting of crutcher in oklahoma that gives awes picture of what happened. is that what makes the case for body cameras? >> also keith lamont cameras really with this particular incident shows us is that cameras are not the as i recall bullet and that's an argument that we've been make since we were formed that cameras are not the only solution just a piece of it and shows that cameras don't always stop these incidents from happening. really what it does is prove what people of color have been saying for hundreds of years, and most recently for

us properly or don't treat us the same way they do white citizens and it shows that we're not making this up and that these aren't rare instances but they happen pretty much every day . and it's really the development of this decknology because not everybody has a camera. >> and we are reliving these molts daily. we already go through in our personal lives instances of discrimination and then to meet other people death has a deleterious effect on us . in boston this is a six month pilot program. what are you hoping comes about? what are you hoping to see? >> i think we already know what's going to happen. we've spent 171 days pushing for cameras and for proper policy. the commissioner and the mayor have already committed to a full program. so we know this is coming. we're really just trying to make sure that the

that's going to work for the community. we're still purposing that our policy be the one that is adopted but we'll be working out the kinks with this program. >> and when you talk about policies what are some of the policies or points that i want to try to work into this body camera program? >> the policy that existings right now is a good chunk of what we put together with the aclu and several other organization inhe outlawed the idea of facial recognition software body cameras which was one of our top concerns and within the policy now officers only turn the cameras on for certain instances. fridges if they pull you over the camera shown on. if they're investigating a certain situation or believe that you're acting suspiciously they have to record those. they cannot be on in churches and locker rooms and places where there's a reasonable expectation

policy and things that we are still pushing for or things that we want to rework is the fact that officers with review footage before submitting their report. this is something that we are opposed to and which if commissioner evans actually admitted on the stand during the body camera trial a few weeks ago that he was also against this particular measure. to we're hoping that during this pilot we rework that and make it -- >> the commissioner to write the report before reviewing the view so it won't shape their dc. >> absolutely. the "new york times" did a studier on this as well that they released back in june that it is possible for you to manipulate video evidence just if you tell someone what they should expect when watching video, then it's easy for you to then watch the video and that fits the narrative that's been created for you. >> seems like many of the pro-points for the cameras were in the i guess inner cities,

>> no, i would say that you know, this effort was led by people of color, both men and women of color but we found broad support across the city. when we first started we did a survey to make sure that was something they wanted us to push, we didn't want to show up to city hall and say that we are representing the community and there was no one standing behind us. so we found broad support even amongst officers for these tool obviously there was a lawsuit of the police union was trying to put a hold on this but the court obviously sided with the supporters of the body camera program. why was there so much resistance from the police union that might confuse people? >> i would say that i don't think the going against it came from the union itself i think it came from patrick rosen and his executive team. throughout this process the

that action. there were a number of officers that talked to us off the record that said that they were acting very bull headed and commissioner himself which we agreed with, which was an odd place to be, but even the commissioner himself said such a position put hiss office officers in danger of making it seem as if they were against this reform measure . you say you've talked to a lot of police officers who support wearing a body camera? >> i know police officers, there there are some in the families of the members of our organization. but the but again we did not want the prepare a policy that was one sided. we wanted to make sure that the everyone who was a stake holder's views were represented so we talked to a number of officers before putting this together . take us through what you understand to be the protocol is. when does the officer turn it on and off? >> when the officer pulls you

on. if they believe that you're acting suspiciously they have to turn it on. the camera can be on -- and this was a huge issue in terms of privacy, a lot of people can the camera be on in the home. and it can but it's with the consent of the person inside of the house and if the person does not give abscond it has to be tushed off. my understanding that the spirit of this is that it should be on when theic interacting with the public. that's when it's -- because that's when obviously -- >> in specific instances where it should be turned off at well. >> are there any cities in massachusetts that have body cameras. >> worster, i know the -- gill, massachusetts, which is a very small town, they had two officers and half of their

cameras. so for the last two years gill has had more body cameras than both . what have you been hearing about the feedback from some of these officers? you say half the festing them and half are not wearing. what's the result? >> well, everything i've read said that police departments both in massachusetts and across the country are embrace thing technology. they are acknowledging the benefits both for the citizen and their officers. it's helping with either discipline or for training for their officers . these cameras i guess potentially could help officers too. >> absolutely. >> show that they're doing the right thing. >> absolutely. and officers we spoke to said they want these cameras so we can see the tough job that they do every day. >> what do you think the trend is? do you think the trend is that there is going to be more body cameras in more police departments? >> absolutely. and again this

of the tools that we get to dictate how it's used. we cannot dictate to a store owner how their cameras should be used but these cameras that are going in our faces and homes and streets we can determine how they're used . thanks for coming in r boston police camera angst team. we'll see what they say about this in six months when the pilot program end. we'll have you back on the show and see what the followout is. >> looking forward tit we examine back some great news about one of our public schools and a prestigious award. all

. boston arts academy or baa is one of only 20 schools from across the country to receive recognition as a school of opportunity. a coveted national designation honoring excellent public schools that engage until practice that is build on student strengths. the national education policy center based at the yurt of colorado boulder sponsors the project, which identifies excellent public schools that close the differences in opportunities and resources that drive the well known achievement gaps. boston arts academy is both's only public high school for the arts. serving 440 students from predominantly low-income families. over the last two years nor than 97 percent of their graduates have been accepted to college. to tell us more about the award

headmaster anne clark . before we talk about the award let's talk about bogs tan art academy. i hear that each year 700 students apply for just 125 openings. i guess how do you admit student sentence . we like to say that we're looking for the student passenger's seat who can't not do art. the student who just loves to daps, loves to sing, loves to draov these aren't necessarily students opportunities but before passion. so they come through the school and go through an audition process. we put them in an interactive class and we see how they engage. >> and how the school for the arts, i guess how do you integrate arts into a high school program until how do you

>> there are many different models but our model focuses on being as inclusive as possible. so when we admit students we don't look at their grades until prior schools. we don't look at their attendance records because i want to make it possible for all students to find success through the arts and went we teach no matter what we teach we teach to the arts as much as possible. and through the arts as much at possible. >> for example? >> so for example, the freshmen right now are t and we love teaching freshmen geometry because it's a discipline that lends itself well to arts integration and one of their projects is to take a scene from a play all students in in geometry class and decide how to light it and to decide how to light a scene you have to understand the play but you also have to understand the geometry of how to plot out a light grid and the technical theater teacher comes in and teaches

the lights and they actually go through the whole project. it's math and it's art. >> and you say you select your students not based on test scores or graze? >> right. and we're a little unique in the country for doing that. most other arts high schools in the country have testing the requirements to get in or to stay. and we have neither because our belief is that an arts based education can be a pathway to success for a number of students, any kind of student . now, diverse your school is. >> so our mission when we opened the school in 19 ninety-eight was to reflect the city of boston in every way possible and that includes our demographics. so currently 41 percent of the student body is latino, 30 seven percent black, 15 percent white. five percent asian and then the rest are multi-identifications and every neighborhood in the city,

is a language other than english at he felt seven percent have identified disabilities. so the point was to create a school where artists could come and succeed through an arts bade succession artists come in all different kind of kids . let's talk about the award. how did you find out and tell us about the selection process for this award. >> well. we found out about the award because we were following this particular organization reflected our philosophy that, when you look at a school and think about what makes a good school you should be thinking about what are the structures that support students to reach their goals and give them opportunities they may not have. and that reflected our philosophy again, this inclusive idea that everyone can succeed. and we applied. it was a several round process. they

but the way we support students with social and emotional channels, the way we offer extension opportunities like through our pro-arts college partners, and after several rounds we were very pleased to find that we were one of the awar dees. and what was is it impact or reaction there faculty, parents, students? get thing award? awfully proud. >> we're extremely proud of this award. we've won other awards. for example we've won an award from the grammy foundation for our music program and other recognitions for the arts programs but this award is special because it really recognizes our mission to be as inclusive and supportive of all students as possible . i understand nearly all of your students go on to college. >> very proud to say that. very

our 19th year, 94 percent of the grays have been accepted to college in the last two years, 97 percent . you're located across from fenway park. and this was nine through 12? >> nine through 12. boston public school . and i guess how can people get more information about boston arts academy? >> you can go to our website, boston arts academy.org. you can follow us on facebook and on twitter or you can look for one area. the largest one coming up is going to be in the strand in january, end of january . what do you see in your kids at school there, how they react to learning through the arts? >> they react with excitement and for some of them i was talking to a ninth grader this

first place that really got me. a lot of our kids tell us that i was the one kid in middle school who liked to sing or liked to draw. i was the one who was kind of different can i come here and everybody's like me and it's not weird. it's not weird among my foal low students and it's not weird about my teachers. everybody's in the into thes and when you organize everyone and everything around what students are really passionate about it all areas . ann clark, the headmaster on the boston arts academy. congratulations on winning the award, which thank you for coming? . when we return, the impact you can have by being a big brother or a big sister. we'll tell you all about it here on

. . one in three people will grow up without a monitor. yet national research has shown that positive relationships between those who have a big sister or a big brother have direct and measurable impact on children's lives. through years of providing quality mentoring relationships the big brothers and big sisters have been chng decades. 76 percent of those who had been mentored say they learned right from wrong from their big. 77 percent reported doing better in school because of their big. and if 90 percent said the relationship with their big helped them make better choices throughout their childhood. but with such a rapid demographic change takes place across the commonwealth big brothers big sisters of color are in demand now more

mentors is an an all time high. to tell us more about how you can get involved we've invited ivett delgado, community relation supervisor at big brothers big sisters of massachusetts bay, and alex barber, latino partnership coordinator at big brothers big sisters of massachusetts baywelcome to both of you. ivett, let me start with you. how about an overview of big he >> sure. our agency, we're obviously a national affiliate of big brothers big sisters of america. but our agency was founded in 1949. we have had quite a few years obviously of experience with this. and what we do is we're serving 155 communities. but this really core of our organization is to do one to one mentoring between children and

responsible and consistent adult who through friendship, first, and through the guiles of our professionallal staff will ultimately develop a mentoring relationship with their littles or mentors. men tees, basically. so we call our bigs brothers and mentors bigs, and our little sisters and brothers mentees . so how do you describe who are being mentored? >> in the program we have al way of developing friendship in instead of calling it all mentoring and having it be a positive role model. and in their friendship we want to both the size to actually benefit if this event. and therefore we have research from past matches that our

better choices in life, already willing to trust an adult and know what is wrong and right and actually at the end, this they are more capable of not doing druggings, illegal drugs or alcohol. and for our mentors that million people think that usually is just for the littles that get impacted or have benefits. is that i has been done that shows the mentors have their enthusiasm in their network. they're more outspoken. they know they're doing something great for the community. they go out and tell friends, i'm helping back my community. i'm doing something great so they're more productive at work. those are some of the benefits that we have found for both sid now, ivett i understand you have sol good news. you just announced the results of your 2016 fiscal year last

understand. >> yeah, we did. this year we served 1260 new youth. that's adding to our currently served total of 2400 youth. that's a big chunk. we're the biggest mentoring program within the mass bay area. but this year we're hoping to increase that number and we're going to serve 950 new youth . you have a thousand kids on the waiting list? >> we do. so reality of this. and you know, obviously part of the thing that we're highlighting is that we do have that many youth t waiting. a lot of the youth are in geographies that are hard to access or what we call our high wait areas. they're in areas that are non-train accessible and most of our investors don't have cars so they're relying on public internships the get --

time. they can be waying a year and a half, two years ago before then get big brother or big sister . talk to me about the need for mentors in the latino community. >> actually right now we have 300 more spanish speaking children on the wait list and obviously with that brings that there are actually more waiting for openings to be enrolled in placesly dorchester and last year we served 800 spanish speaking littles. with ha only ten percent of that 800 was actually watched with a hispanic latino big. so we want to tackle that challenge and we want our latino communities come out and help us find more volunteerings that are spanish speaking or of color . talk to me about the profile

the age, and what do you are the similarities of the kids and the mentors as well. the teach people that they are. >> that's a great question. i think for our families i mean i spend a lot of my time usually talking to the families and the volunteers. there's not really a one size fits all. they can come from single parent households, two parent households, as long as there's a consistent need for adult. so not really a once size fits off the they're in our community and seeking our help . and alex how can someone get involved as a mentor? >> it's easy. we have events around the community and if you don't see pus to sign up you can go to our website. and there will be a tab for volunteer.

yourself. it's super says . and the challenge i guess when there is a language barrier, what about the channels there? >> so one of the biggest challenges our main priority, our main goal is the safety of the child. so therefore if a parent is not able to speak english, we cannot go and match them with a big that only speaks english. we have to find somebody that speaks their language so therefore there's a communication between the parents and the bigs and make sure the child is the volunteer side . we'll leave it there. alex barber and ivett delgado. thank you for coming in and good luck filling all those monitoring spots. i know it's a great program . all right. well that's it for this edition of urban update. i'm byron barnett. from all of us here at urban update, have a great sunday

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