Memphis Police juvenile crime program sends wrong message to our youth | Opinion
When I read the proposed Memphis Police Department juvenile crime abatement program, I thought about the children that I know downtown.
As a resident of 38103, I remembered the young man who sells candy to earn enough money for himself and his siblings. I thought about the kids who ask to clean windows for a dollar or two. I pictured the children who excitedly come downtown to see Beale Street and to see their friends and the flippers who have long provided entertainment on Beale Street.
I thought about what it was like to be a teenager and to look for fun and to gravitate to whatever is happening in that moment.
I also remembered my own experience with MPD policing downtown. In my twenties, having just moved to Memphis for work, my friends took me out on Beale Street. Having forgotten it was daylight saving time, the street shut down an hour early. I remember police on horses unexpectedly forming a line with police cars behind them marching down the street yelling at anyone who was present to go home. When I paused to hurriedly fix my shoe one officer stood above me on a horse and screamed, “Get the hell off the street!” While safety might have been the aim, I did not feel safe.
While downtown has indeed faced crime, the answer to our crime is not to continue the tradition of terrorizing our youth. As I read the leaked draft proposal, I was shocked by how we talk about our children. Based on the presentation, the clear implication was that all of the teens coming downtown after 6pm are criminals or have the potential to become a menace to society.
The “violent” offenses being targeted were as follows: selling candy, getting donations, playing music, dressing the wrong way (however loosely defined) and anything else that allegedly disrupts the “harmony” of downtown. The clear message to the teens coming downtown is “you do not belong here.”
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There are bigger concerns
Though focused on crime, the actual criminal offenses plaguing residents were not even mentioned. Rather than addressing shootings or theft, the proposal was to place an officer on top of AutoZone to spot non-criminal offenses and then to round up violators of the above offenses and take them into custody. For such offenses, teens would wind up at juvenile court. If their parents are working and unreachable, then the next step would be to send them to child services. While MPD has since shifted the focus to curfew enforcement, there still is little clarity on how such a proposal could or would be enforced. Long gone are the days when kids were escorted back home. Now, they can face criminal consequences, right along with their families. This would never fly in a wealthy suburb and it should not occur in the heart of Memphis.
As this program is being re-evaluated, there is a critical opportunity to rectify its many shortcomings. First, let us start with any actual data and evidence. How does profiling teens and likely violating their civil liberties over teen behavior reduce property crime or violent crime? Teens being home by 11pm does not stop the guns that are proliferating our community. Targeting music and dress does not address the hopelessness so many of our kids feel. It certainly does not address the lack of investment and failed K-12 education so many of our youth have experienced, which was all made worse by the pandemic. And creating pathways for them to enter the criminal justice system will actually produce worse outcomes in the long-term.
With ten officers assigned alone to the proposed program, the total cost is likely well north of $500K dollars a year. What if we spent that money on creating opportunities for these same youth downtown? The most effective way to prevent young adults from becoming engaged in something negative is to engage them in something positive - jobs, sports and constructive opportunities. Famously, connecting youth to high-quality summer jobs in Boston reduced arraignments for property crime by 57% and violent crime by 35%.
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An asset, not the problem
What if we spent that $500K on co-locating quality opportunities to provide safe programming to youth? To engage them and work with them to think about their futures? To create fun and safe age-appropriate options, like basketball tournaments?
What if we recruited and provided ways to earn money via training for internships that companies provided? What if we had counselors present, knowing so many of our youth are enduring trauma?
What if we saw it as an asset that we have the chance to connect with our youth and not a burden? This proposal made it clear that our youth are a problem that has to be solved, contained or obliterated. That is not how you build a thriving city for everyone. Our youth will become what we see in them. We should be ashamed. We can and should do better.
Sarah Lockridge-Steckel is Co-Founder and CEO of The Collective Blueprint. The mission of the Collective Blueprint is to increase socioeconomic mobility for Opportunity Youth by building pathways to thriving careers. Since 2017, The CB has helped hundreds of young adults get trained and placed in in-demand careers.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Opinion: Reimagining Memphis Police by investing in our youth
