By Janelle Walker
The Courier-News
ELGIN, Ill. — Angela Mascote feels, as a 15-year-old Larkin High School student, she and many of her friends have a pretty good relationship with the Elgin Police Department.
Two years ago, Mascote was the first winner of the department’s “Chief for a Day” poster competition, which included a ride from her middle school to a tour of the police department.
But according to Chief of Police Jeff Swoboda, while the department does quite a bit of outreach with adults in the community, they may not be addressing the concerns of its youth.
That concern was among the reasons for the first STEP — Students Together Engaging the Police — session, Thursday night at the Centre of Elgin’s Heritage Ballroom.
“Our outreach is mostly older people — we are not getting input from this age range,” Swoboda said. “We are not connecting to this age as well as we think we can.”
That age range is 13 to 19 year olds. The department reached out to Elgin’s high schools, Boys & Girls Club, Youth Leadership Academy and via its Facebook page to bring in teens.
Nearly 100 attended the 5 p.m. event which offered free food before the 6 p.m. kick off.
Rather than talk to the teens, Swoboda made an opening statement, followed up by Bob Whitt, a self-described former gang member. Whitt has been working on community outreach with the department.
The idea, Whitt said, is to help build the relationship and trust between the department and community youth.
The youth were broken into small tables with one or two police officers at each table. The officers then led the youth through a few prepared questions to help understand what their current relationships and thoughts were with police in general.
Sgt. Kevin Senne and Officer Heather Farrell of the Resident Officer of Program of Elgin asked their table what their thoughts were on officers. Many of the youths said they had thought about being police officers or teachers.
There are similarities between teachers and police, Senne told the table. Oftentimes, he said, officers don’t want to arrest youth, but rather teach them about the law and set an example for them.
Mascote was also at that table — Senne recognized her from her poster project a few years earlier.
She had heard about the session through her mother, a nurse at Presence Saint Joseph Hospital who follows the department’s Facebook page.
“I wanted to come and learn about the community,” Mascote said.
She believes the department has a good reputation among her friends, but does realize that some teens may not be fans of police in general because of national news reports.
She will talk to those peers about how the Elgin department is different, Mascote said.
That is another reason the department wanted to hold a teen-centric session, Swoboda said.
“Perception is reality,” Swoboda said. While many Elgin teens may be used to seeing the school resource officers in their high and middle schools, that doesn’t mean they have a relationship with the officer other than saying “hi” in the hallway, he added.
The input from teens will also be used to develop a teen advisory committee for police, he said.
The department has a citizen’s advisory committee now, Swoboda said — but again, that isn’t addressing youth issues.
The city is looking to bring youth onto some of its advisory committees, and having youth involved in the department brings a talent pool for those assignments.
A few of the youth were asked to speak about Thursday’s event, and their relationship with police, on camera. That video will be used as a recruiting tool in the future, Swoboda said
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©2017 The Courier-News (Elgin, Ill.)