By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

More than a decade ago, faced with an epidemic of drug overdoses, juvenile crime and teen suicides, our city learned an important lesson: just as we cannot arrest our way out of crime, an arrest or an overdose survived will not necessarily result in a young person making positive changes and putting his or her life on the right track. When we stopped dealing with our problems in a narrow, reactionary way and addressed the problem through a holistic and proactive approach, we were able to end that epidemic. Since then, the Somerville Police Department has continued to evolve into a model of community policing, based in part on those lessons learned. Now our Police Department is again providing an example for others to follow through an initiative that turns our police officers into trusted advisors for students throughout their junior and high school careers.

Believed to be the first program of its kind, STEPS (Students & Teachers Engage Public Safety) has police officers each adopting an entire sixth grade in each of our five schools. The officers will check in with the students in their grade during lunch, recess and after school—all part of their regular patrol duties. And this isn’t a temporary buddy program. These officers will stay with their grade until the students graduate from high school in 2022. Each year, another five officers will be assigned another sixth grade, until ultimately every Somerville student in grades 6-12 will have a trusted Somerville Police Officer that they can turn to and talk to about the problems and issues they are facing.

These kinds of personal relationships are critical to effective community policing, which is predicated upon two-way communication between the community and police officers. Community members help officers identify problems, draw connections between issues, and provide feedback on how the approach to those problems and issues is or isn’t working. That type of two-way communication and relationship is impossible without trust. Building that trust allows the kind of collaboration that challenges assumptions on both sides. In the case of STEPS—and all community policing, really—an officer can see young people who are grappling with a variety of challenges and provide support before bad decisions are made, while a student can see an officer not as a punitive authority figure, but as a trusted mentor who can help guide them through their formative years.

Although STEPS is a new initiative, this is already a tried-and-true approach in Somerville. Teen Empowerment is one of the great success stories of our community, and a critical contributor to our success in ending that epidemic of a decade ago. Youth organizers worked with our Police Department to tear down the walls between adults, police and teens, using social events, the annual Somerville Youth Peace Conference, and other initiatives. Teens built trusting relationships with adults in our city, became leaders among their peers and helped us solve the issues facing our community. Teen Empowerment’s work has continued this year with new initiatives, from a teen-police basketball game to walking dialogues with officers held this past summer.

STEPS applies the lessons we’ve learned through Teen Empowerment to every student who passes through Somerville Public Schools, at a time when the national conversation is focused on relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve and protect. We are proud of our diversity in Somerville, a city long known as the first stop for many immigrants pursuing their dreams in the United States. Today, a quarter of our residents were born outside the U.S., more than 50 languages are spoken in our schools, and nearly three-quarters of our high school students qualify for free or reduced lunch. As a community with broad socioeconomic diversity, through the STEPS initiative, I hope we can provide an example for others to follow in improving the relationship between local police departments and the residents they serve.

Police Chief David Fallon, the five officers who are the first to participate in STEPS, and all our rank-and-file officers deserve to be lauded for their commitment to community policing and working in collaboration with the community. While some other police departments have increasingly militarized and, whether intended or not, instituted an “us vs. them” mentality with disastrous results, the Somerville Police Department has taken the opposite approach. Our law enforcement officials have recognized that education, the economy, public health, and family services are all inextricably intertwined with public safety. In Somerville, we go to the root of the issue, supporting strong family units, education and opportunity for all our residents. With this initiative, we look to lead the way again and give every child in our schools the support they need to become the best version of themselves.