Local Students Learning Crime Fighting Techniques at Tampa Conference
By CRA News Service
A group of local students are in Tampa, joining hundreds of their peers, community activists and law enforcement personnel at a three day conference designed to reduce crime through community engagement.
The students from Carver Middle School and Atlantic High School are attending the 30th Annual Preventing Crime in the Black Community conference, sponsored by a host of agencies including Florida Department of Corrections, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and Florida Department of Education.
“We hope that by taking them to this conference, they will learn from people who do this every day that the choices they make every day can determine their future, whether it is one that is highlighted by success or one cut short by incarceration,” said Robert Dodd, program manager for the KOP Mentoring Network and one of the chaperones.
A great emphasis is placed on steering young people away from crime, finding alternatives to violence for young people and community engagement, Dodd said.
For years, local law enforcement officials have credited community involvement and partnerships that were formed at events such as the Crime Prevention Conference with having a direct impact on the drop in youth crime rates in Palm Beach County.
Ruthnie Auguste, a rising junior at Atlantic High School, has been looking forward to the conference since January.
“I am hoping to learn different ways to help prevent crime in my city and in my school,” said Auguste, president of the KOP mentoring program at Atlantic High School. “You can read about different ideas and tips from a magazine or brochure but it won’t be the same as being there and hearing from the people who used it in their communities.”
For Auguste and her four other peers, the conference was a reward for good grades and conduct.
