Philadelphia’s youth recommended police officers become more social, and in turn, citizens will, too.
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A teenage girl at City Hall yesterday during part two of a forum entitled Securing Our Future: Re-imagining Philadelphia’s Community-Police Relations, offered up the most social of recommendations: cops should take more selfies with citizens.
The selfies, hopefully, would be preceded by a warm greeting from either or both the law enforcement officer and a member of the public, suggested a young man who attends GW Carter High School.
But even before a cop or citizen can relinquish a salutation, suggested another teenager in attendance, body languages – including the seemingly standard issue Philadelphia mean-mug (an angry face) – must be altered.
Many of the recommendations from the young people, suggested Deputy Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Mr. Kevin Bethel, were more thoughtful than what’s usually articulated by older audiences.
Deputy Commissioner Bethel committed to integrating the youth’s recommendations into the reforms already being implemented at the department under one condition: the youth must stay engaged in the civic process and continue lending their voices to the conversation.
The same teen who mentioned taking more selfies with cops also suggested that the City increase its investment in PAL Centers.
Philadelphia City Councilman, Mr. Mark Squilla, who watched the conversation unfold seated in the back of the Mayor’s Reception Room, told Techbook Online exclusively that City Council hasn’t had the conversation about increasing investments in PAL Centers, but if police officials came and lobbied for additional dollars for PAL “they’d be taken very seriously in Council.”
“Anytime we can put money into places that make a difference,” he said, “Council is very interested in it, though we’d have to figure out where we’d get the money from: reallocating from another program or raise revenues to add to our General Fund.”
This isn’t the first time PAL Centers have come up in a conversation with young people about improving police-community relations. Roughly two weeks ago at City Hall, Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Mr. Charles Ramsey, being peppered with questions from kids, was asked about more blocks parties and PAL Centers.
Commissioner Ramsey acknowledged there isn’t as many as there probably should be, and pledged to look into opening up a few more.
Councilman Squilla said PAL Centers are currently going through a transformation to become more of a business model. He also noted that many community members, a year or two ago, complained that PAL Centers had become too insular with their programming and wasn’t initiating dialogue with communities about the types of activities they may want to see.
Things are changing, though, said the Councilman, who’s witnessing a more harmonious climate being fostered at the two PAL Centers in his District.
Using PAL Centers as a platform that would encourage youth to pursue careers in law enforcement has also been discussed, though Commissioner Ramsey said that’s not the priority of the program.
“PAL goes beyond recruiting; it’s something positive for young people to do. If youth start to see law enforcement as a career… that’s a side benefit. But that’s not why we run PAL, our goal to enhance lives and give youth more opportunity within their neighborhoods.”
Councilman Squillia, however, thinks PAL Centers as a recruitment platform is an “idea worth looking into.”
“I hate when I hear that we have to recruit (police officers) outside of the City because we don’t have enough people here capable of doing the job. That’s false! We have that opportunity. When you see police officers as role models, especially at PAL Centers, young people growing up will want to emulate them and that will help make this City a better place to live.”
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