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### **Raleigh Police Build Life-ChangingRelationships with Area Youth**

 July 2020 | Volume 13 | Issue 7

*The COPS Office is pleased to feature the**Raleigh  (North Carolina) Police Department**as the July 2020 winner of the Community Policing in Action Photo  Contest. The winning photo shows Sergeant Terrence Knuckles with a Raleigh  Summer Youth Employment participant.*

 Learning how to tie a necktie is a rite of passage for  many young men, and for Sgt. Terrence Knuckles of the Raleigh (North Carolina)  Police Department (RPD), teaching the art of tying a good knot to the boys who  had participated in the Raleigh Summer Youth Employment Program (RSYEP) was a  pleasure. 

 Created by the Community Engagement Division of Raleigh’s Housing  and Neighborhoods Department, RYSEP connects local teens with summer jobs  that provide a paycheck as well as valuable training in life skills and  mentoring by local lawyers, law enforcement officers, and other professionals. 

 Like the other teenage boys and girls who participated in  RYSEP, the young man in the photograph was getting tips from RPD officers on  proper business attire making a good impression on a job interview in the  program’s “Tie and Bow Tie” class. After dressing for success, the young men  and women attended the annual Lunch with Professionals. Hosted by the RPD and  the Wake County Bar Association, the  lunch brings the kids together with representatives from a variety of careers  and workplaces including RPD administrative staff, to talk about education,  career choices, and networking.

 Asked about his involvement in the program, Sgt. Knuckles  says, “I really enjoy getting to know these kids, building relationships with  them,” adding that in more than the 20 years on the force—first as a patrol  officer and now as a member of the southwest district’s community squad—he has  become very connected to the young people who live there. But the people he is  most involved with are college students who attend nearby schools and live in  the district’s rental properties and the individuals who manage those  buildings. Though the community is a safe one, loud parties, illegal drinking, emotional  stress, and addiction or substance abuse are common problems. 

 To address them, Sgt. Knuckles and the other two officers  in the community squad built strong relationships with the students, property  managers, and university personnel and created a network that connected all of  them with the RPD. 

 “It’s a great working relationship,” he says. “We work with  the student life departments, tying them in with apartment complex managers. This  way, we can mitigate problems, preventing incidents from becoming law  enforcement problems.” 

 Asked what he likes about community policing, Sgt. Knuckles  replies, “I like fixing people’s problems. Instead of just responding to 911  calls, you can take time to observe what’s going on and work with the people  and other city and RPD departments to address it. If you get to know people,  they will reach out to ask how to handle a situation rather than letting it  grow. It really does decrease problems.“ 

 He likes the collaborating aspect of community policing, too,  working with other RPD departments as well as the schools and property owners. “Patrol  officers may see something I missed and suggest a good solution. We work with the  city too. I might ask them to cut down shrubs or increase lighting to improve  an unsafe area that a property owner doesn’t have the resources to do. Collaboration  lets us accomplish things we can’t on our own.” 

 Community policing is an integral part of the RPD’s overall  approach to supporting public safety and order, reflected in all operations as  well as many programs in addition to Summer Youth Employment. 

 Says April Adams, the RPD Youth Services Coordinator, “We  work with a number of city departments to provide services, such as the Leaders  of Tomorrow program and a digital connectors camp that teaches local kids how  to code and create web sites, and connects them with mentors from IBM, Google,  and other tech companies.”

 Like Adams, Sgt. Knuckles is proud of what the RPD does  for area youth. “I feel very good about these programs,” he says. “You’ve got  to engage with kids. How you treat them makes a huge difference in how you  relate to them when they are adults.If you break the  cycle of fear, and they grow up to be citizens who are not afraid to approach  law enforcement to work problems out, their kids won’t be either.”        

*Written with contributions from Sergeant Terrence Knuckles and  April Adams, Youth Coordinator of the Raleigh Police Department (RPD). Photo  Courtesy of the RPD, which submitted this entry to the photo contest.*

 Faye Elkins          Senior Technical Writer

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