From identifying poorly lit streets to making public transit safer, Redwood City teens are SCANing the area for problems and sharing their concerns with police.
Captain John Spicer is working with high school students to learn what teens think about the way police interact with them and find ways to improve communication.
“Oftentimes kids think that no one’s listening to them,” Spicer said. This new teen think tank called the “Student Community Advisory Network” disproves that theory.
SCAN is composed of 12 teens from two public high schools in Redwood City who were selected by school administrators. For the past year, the teens have met weekly with Captain Spicer to share their perceptions of police activity and their public safety concerns. The goal is to create a peer-to-peer, information-sharing environment that is conducive to honest feedback, Spicer said. The students who participate in the SCAN are intellectually diverse and live in many different Redwood City neighborhoods, Spicer said.
One of the schools participating in the program is Redwood High School. Redwood High School is an alternative school for students who are at risk of dropping out of high school, or not successful in a traditional high school environment. The principal helped select the students who are involved.
"Collaboration of this nature is a very important and positive step for our students", said Mr. Wells, Redwood High School Principal, about the reasons his students participate in the program.
This is one of many new initiatives launched by Redwood City Police Department’s new Chief of Police Meynard "JR" Gamez, which include Coffee with the Cops and the Town Hall Meetings. Chief Gamez said he launched this program, because the youth community plays an important role in the way the neighborhoods thrive. The other programs are designed to attract adults. The SCAN is just for teens.
“It's important for us to provide them a forum where they can tell us what we need to hear," Gamez said. "Through this new collaboration with youth, we'll be able to take their feedback to our officers so they'll have yet another perspective to consider as they deliver services throughout the City.”
Redwood City Mayor Alicia Aguirre is enthusiastic about the initiative. “I’m excited to see that The Chief has been taking all our core values we have on City Council and working on them with the students,” Aguirre said.
The SCAN forum meets for the last time this week. When school resumes, so will the weekly think tank meetings.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
