The latest edition of the “Walking Dialogues” series brought Somerville police officers, local teens, and members of the general public together for an afternoon of food, fun, and constructive dialogue. — Photos by Rob Carter

This year’s third ‘Walking Dialogues’ event a success
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By Rob Carter

The police arrived at a barbecue at the Clarendon Hill Towers only moments after it started on Saturday, July 22, but not because of noise complaints from the neighbors. The officers came as invited guests, part of the Center for Teen Empowerment’s Walking Dialogue tour of Somerville.

Residents of the apartment complex wore cowboy hats and ate hamburgers and hot dogs, and police officers mingled with the crowd. One officer even joined community members on the dance floor set up in the middle of the dining area, cutting a rug next to a Michael Jackson impersonator hired for the event.

The cookout was the third in a series of Walking Dialogues, which seek to “measure and improve perceptions of public safety among Somerville residents,” according to organizers. While the police worked on the “improve perceptions” portion of the mission by introducing themselves to residents and chatting over plates of grilled chicken and pasta salad, a group of teenagers tried to tackle the “measure” piece.

Teenagers sporting clipboards and T-shirts emblazoned with “Teen Empowerment” bounced from table to table, interviewing anyone willing to speak with them. The clipboards held surveys about the Center for Teen Empowerment’s five areas of focus this summer: new marijuana laws, immigration, mental health, perception of police and perception of teens.

Taylor Copeland, one of the youth leaders at the Center for Teen Empowerment, said they’ve found that residents have more positive views of their local police force than they do of police at a national level.

“Somerville seems to be a positive perception overall, but, when it comes to mainstream media and police in general, then it seems like there’s a more negative and fearful connotation toward that,” Copeland said.

One of her fellow activists, Sam Jean-Francois, noted that his conversations have highlighted the impact a single negative experience can have on a person’s trust in the police. Copeland said one of the main focuses this year has been trying to lessen the impact of one bad interaction.

Copeland said members of the Center for Teen Empowerment hope they can “humanize the police and youth and [help people] realize that negative situations do happen, but also that not everyone is the same, and kind of bridge those gaps through this dialogue.”

As they work as intermediaries between the police and the community, some Center for Teen Empowerment members say they are seeing their own perceptions change.

“It was really bad for me growing up, lots of gangs, drugs, violence, all that stuff coming around here, and me and my friends were always involved or in the mix of everything, so I had a very negative perception of police,” John Norena, another youth leader, said. “But then, once I started working for Teen Empowerment, I started doing youth-police dialogues and sitting down with them and asking questions and actually getting to know them, so I started really seeing them as people, started humanizing them a little more, and now we’re like best buds.”

The Center for Teen Empowerment came to Somerville in 2004, after Mayor Joe Curtatone brought the group in to address increases in youth drug use, gang activity and suicide rates.

The Somerville Police and the Center for Teen Empowerment are scheduled to host the fourth in their series of seven Walking Dialogue events at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 27, at Dickerman Playground.