Carroll County Attorney, John Werden, is a member of the Fight Crime: Invest in Kids National Leadership Council, and this group recently reacted to the national conversation taking place on policing. It is right that Americans have been shocked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis, Minn. police officer as well as with the failure of three other officers to intervene, they say. The situation has brought a vocal condemnation of racism. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids agrees with the law enforcement leaders who have spoken out in recent weeks, pointing out that these events underscore what they have believed for a quarter-century. “We can’t simply arrest our way out of large, societal problems,” they write. They have been instrumental in developing programs for children and families that stops crime before it happens and eases the inequities that threaten our social fabric and undermine our nations’ fundamental, aspirational principles. The programs are based on four evidence-based crime prevention methods: voluntary parent coaching for new parents, high-quality early childhood care and education, effective in-school and afterschool programs and interventions for juveniles at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. The Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Police Training Institute (PTI) and its Connecting Youth & Communities with Law Enforcement (CYCLE) program is just one initiative that provides interactive training to law enforcement officers about adolescent brain development, de-escalation, implicit bias and informed response to trauma while also addressing the necessity of transparency and accountability. To date, PTI has served 18 communities across the country with more to come in the future. As conversations continue, this leadership council has vowed to protect our communities. They will “continue to push for investments in research-proven programs that can set children on the path for success and, in doing so, easing the inequities experienced by far too many Americans.”
