. >> reporter: on this wednesday evening in east harlem, officers james docco and victor ramos pay aisit to a young man in the neighborhood. he's a 20-year-old named jordan raus and was arrested a few years ago on a robbery charge, but they are not here to arrest him today, they are here to make sure he stays out of trouble. >> all right. any luck yet? >> not no luck right now. >> okay. >> this is what we do. we go visit. hey, what's going on, what's up? even though you haven't gotten in trouble in awhile, we want you to continue that route. we're here to prevent them from being arrested instead of being the person that arrests them. >> this kind of proactive policing is at the heart of a little-known program within the nypd called "the juvenile robbery intervention program," or j-rip. its aim is to steer every teenager who's arrested from a robbery away from a life of crime. the focus is on two new york city neighborhoods. officers make repeated visits to the teens' homes, getting to know their families and monitoring their whereabouts. >> in the police department we usually look at