Police Youth Advisory Committee

School Police consists of 41 police officers responsible for protecting 105,000 students, 14,000 employees, and 220 schools and facilities spread over 210 square miles.  While our officers benefit from strong working relationships with our students and staff, it is essential we create a more formal setting to ensure student voice is included in department operations.

Meet the Committee

Committee members will:

• Attend meetings held once a  month (mostly via Zoom).

• Review select department policies and procedures, and provide input.

• Participate in events such as "Game Changer", which brings community members (including students) together with police officers to engage in the difficult and raw discussions about perceived racial disparities in policing, how to improve service, mutual understanding and respect between police and the community, etc.  After those hard conversations, the group attends a sporting event to enjoy each other's company, not as police or as students, but simply as people.

• Participate in trips to police facilities for exposure to various types of trainings, which may include, but not limited to:  The Force Options Simulator, Defensive Tactics, Firearms, De-escalation, Scenario Based Training, etc.

• Ride-Alongs with School Police officers and other departments.

There are two key aspects to the success of our new Committee - diversity and youth willing to engage in honest and "courageous conversations".  We are looking for students who represent various social identities (i.e. race/ethnicity, gender, social class/socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, (dis)abilities, and religion/religious beliefs) or students who identify with one or more minoritized/marginalized social groups.  School Police needs students who can be respectfully-critical of police operations, policies, and tactics, and willing to offer constructive criticism for department improvement.

Check out past meetings!