As featured last month, our US correspondent Una Riley attended the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Cadet Leadership Programme at the Galen Center at the University of Southern California. There she saw 652 LAPD cadets and reported on their graduation day. This time, she talks with First Assistant Chief Director, Office of Special Operations, LAPD, Earl C Paysinger; and Natalie Torres-Soriano, Senior Management Analyst, Office of Special Operations, LAPD.
We met at the Los Angeles Police Department, West 1st Street in downtown Los Angeles, the traffic was bad and I was running late; not a good feeling, especially when you are meeting with people who value punctuality, in law enforcement. However, all was well and I arrived at the station to be greeted by Police Officer III Kristina Montoya who escorted me to my meeting with First Assistant Chief Director, Office of Special Operations, LAPD, Earl C Paysinger; and Natalie Torres-Soriano, Senior Management Analyst, Office of Special Operations, LAPD.
Chief Paysinger stood up to shake hands, a tall and distinguished figure resplendent in his uniform. Apart from his involvement with the Cadet Leadership Programme he oversees the daily activities of over 7000 sworn members of the Department who are assigned to patrol, detective, traffic and specialized enforcement functions. Paysinger is highly regarded and has been the leader of Department Operations during a period of unprecedented success in reducing crime, while creating partnerships with the diverse communities throughout the city of Los Angeles. Although he is renowned for re-engineering the LAPD Cadet Leadership programme that provides more than 8000 children with vital lessons in academic excellence, character, and judgment he is quick to defer to Natalie Torres-Soriano, Senior Management Analyst, Office of Special Operations, LAPD, as the power behind the throne as it were.
I started by asking how they managed to make this project so successful. Paysinger said: “I am a kind of big ideas guy … but the person who is responsible for what I call the Xs and Os of taking the big idea and actually executing it … that is not me!” We all turned towards Natalie Torres-Soriano. She smiled warmly and said: “So we took over what was then the LAPD Explorer Programme in 2006 and at that point it had only 457 kids city-wide. What we found was that although it was moulded after a law enforcement pre-programme for kids we found very few ‘Explorers’ that went through the programme actually became police officers. This was for a number of reasons, not because the intent wasn’t there or that they weren’t attracted to the profession. But starting at 13 and not being able to come on to the department until 20 to 21 years old … you know things happen. They graduate from school, they have to support their families, they enlist in military or they ruin their credit while they are transitioning into college. So the question the chief had for me was, ‘How can we impact as many youths as possible – with the outcome being that they are just productive citizens’? The LAPD Cadet Leadership Programme was born out of that. All these factors together just exploded and the programme was born.”
Paysinger added: “The other reality from a law enforcement perspective is that we recognise that on many occasions mainly in disenfranchised, disadvantaged or underserved communities and particularly in communities of colour and Hispanic, many young people turn to lives of crime, gangs and drugs. It just seems that in law enforcement what we tend to do is focus on the negative elements and dimensions of the law enforcement continuum. For example, the identification, arrest, booking, prosecution, detention, rehabilitation …. you know the negative elements of that continuum. While we pay so little attention to education, prevention and intervention…the positive values on that continuum. The challenge to us was that the latter three take time and effort and commitment and in law enforcement we tend to have those commodities in short supply. Also, we recognised as part of this programme that a lot of times when kids turn to those negative elements the reason is that they are drawn to them in a gravitational way, not necessarily that they want to be criminals or gang members or drug addicts. That is the only thing they see! That is the only influence they have and as I have said so many times before … it’s interesting how gang members never have a problem recruiting kids. If that was the case … why should we have a problem? That was a powerful premise and principle for us to begin our work. Kids are amazing creatures, they want to belong, they want to be embraced, they want to love and they want somebody to care for them. They want to belong to something special and the only reason that they turn to those negative influences is because the people that are involved in that are the only ones holding out their hands. So our decision was that we just flipped that script and inverted it and we became that gravitational force.”
I asked if they had seen the results of that methodology in relation to the gangs? Paysinger replied: “It has been manifest. When we open the doors to each of the sessions every year … we both fret because we say we never turn a child away … but one of the classes not too long ago we graduated 730!” While I congratulated them on their success it became clear that the issue was the more successful the programme, the more funding required. In the UK the Volunteer Police Cadets (VPC) is a uniformed voluntary youth organisation, supported by the Metropolitan Police. It is open to young people aged ten to 19 from across London’s diverse communities, irrespective of their background or financial circumstances including those vulnerable to crime or social exclusion and the funding is made available through the government. The Prime Minister David Cameron alongside the movie star Sir Michael Caine, a youth programme for 16-year-olds, inspired by Britain’s postwar national service. Sir Michael joined a south London gang as a teenager in the late 1940s and is supporting the initiative to end a “pointless waste of potential” among teenagers. The PM also pledged to give every 16-year-old the chance to join the eight-week National Citizens’ Scheme. To fund this, the government would redirect £50m from its Prevent Programme, which is designed to prevent extremism, to pay for pilot schemes for 10,000 teenagers. I asked Mike Penning, Home Office Minister for Policing, Fire, Criminal Justice and Victims for his thoughts on the scheme. He said: “Cadets are vital in strengthening policing and helping forces to improve relationships with young people. They bring a diverse set of knowledge, skills and experiences to forces and can take back a deeper understanding of policing into their own families and the wider community.” While in the UK the government is providing funding of the Youth scheme, in Los Angeles Chief Paysinger has to seek funding from private donations and contributions from bodies such as the Ray Charles Foundation.
When you see what they have done on a shoestring budget here I think that an Anglo-American Exchange programme to share expertise would benefit those on both sides of the Atlantic. I asked Paysinger where his funding came from. He said: “We get some from state grants that come to us. But most of the gifts are very small and from people who care and who recognise that this is marvelous work. However, we have a railway that heard of us called BSNF (Burlington Northern and Santa Fe, BNSF) and very kindly sends us $5000 each year. The thing that we promise to whomever we receive money from is that we will be the guardians of the funds. Virtually every dime of it will go to the children.”
Torres-Soriano added: “I think the other thing to add to the chief’s points are that our funding, is on a shoestring when you think about the number of kids that we are serving but it comes down to a basic belonging. You put that uniform on them and they are somebody. They believe in themselves. The chief also elaborated on a breakthrough as far as the one of the programme rules was concerned. The initial academic criteria had been higher which excluded a number of children that might benefit from the programme … so they decided to lower the requirement level. Paysinger went on: “I asked Natalie – where did that rule come from? Let’s change it. Here’s the reason why. There is a body of cognitive literature that tells us that when young people who are under-achievers are with another group of achievers … they too achieve. You see this powerful groundswell of academic excellence and it happens right before your eyes.”
When I mentioned our Prime Minister had pledged £10m to the Cadet Programme, Paysinger smiled. “If Natalie and I had $10m … we could change Los Angeles.” We continued to chat and he said: “Being African-American and Hispanic the powerful element of this programme that we recognised was that in years past the LAPD has struggled in developing a relationship with those communities. But now the very people who tend not to like us understand that something magical is happening here. They want their kids to be part of that magic.” Torres-Soriano took over and explained that they also run a ‘cadet parent programme’. “It is a set of eight courses that they have to complete to get their certificate but it always ends being ten to 12 because they can’t get enough and want more.” Basically it is designed to not only educate the parents about bullying and internet crimes against children; and aims to develop education between teenagers and their parents.
What is the most important aspect of the programme for you both? I asked. Torres–Soriano thought for a moment then said: “I think the two most successful things that we have achieved in this programme are firstly, that we have offered hope. Putting something in front of kids that motivates them to excel … that’s all they are looking for. Tell me that I can … that there is an option. Take that coupled with somebody or an organisation that cares and that’s the magic. You can do it with any programme. The kids just need to feel and know that you are there to support them. Many times I call the kids into the principal’s office at the Academy. I’ll sit down and I’ll say, ‘Tell me what I can do better, tell me what you like and what you don’t like?’ The consistent answer I get is,‘Nobody has ever sat me down and asked me what I want to do, what are my goals, how am I doing in school. Nobody takes the time to do that for me.’ It is interesting because it sounds so basic but that is what they are asking for.”
Paysinger agreed. He said: “Most times I think we under-estimate the sophistication of young people. They have a very good sense of where they want to go; they just need encouragement in getting there. It just fascinates me how so frequently in today’s world parents and others abdicate their responsibility unto the social media. They relinquish their responsibility to teachers and kids sense that. It’s palpable to them. That’s why they migrate to other places and other things. If we show them that we care we could create a revolution.” I think they already have and with more funding I have no doubt that they could change the face of Los Angeles for future generations.
