By Robert Haugh
The Santa Clara Police Department has a new mascot: Walsh. It also announced a youth-focused BRAVE program.
The mascot is named in honor of Sean Walsh, a dedicated Police Explorer who lost his life in Afghanistan. Since Sean’s tragic passing in 2011, his mother, Cheryl Walsh, has supported law enforcement canines through her foundation.
This week, the SCPD launched its BRAVE program, which stands for Building Respect, Awareness, and Values through Education.
This new initiative replaces the former DARE program.
The BRAVE program is a 7-week course for 4th-grade students.
Each week, officers will lead one-hour lessons covering essential topics like Responsibility, Communication, Peer Pressure, Bullying, Cyber Safety, and Substance Awareness.
The program wraps up with a Graduation ceremony to celebrate the students’ achievements.
Programs similar to this have existed for many years, it certainly wasn’t invented by Santa Clara Police Department or an elected police chief. For some crazy reason, Burt Field would like everyone to believe that only an elected police chief could create a program like this. In fact, the International Association of Chief’s of Police has published youth program guidelines for years and makes resources available online https://www.theiacp.org/resources/document/youth-focused-policing-sample-impact-evaluation-plans
San Jose’s Police Department has for years provided T.E.A.M. training and mentoring to students at the elementary level all the way through high school. They focus on five core areas: Zero Tolerance, Choices & Consequences, Peer Pressure, Bullying & Harassment Prevention, and Gang Prevention. SJPD’s police chief is appointed. https://www.sjpd.org/community/community-services/team-kids-school-program
Mountain View Police Department’s MVPAL program mentors youth in athletics, social mentoring, sponsors students to participate in after school programs, and takes children on tours to college campuses. Mt. View’s police chief is appointed. https://mvpsf.org/programs/pal/
For more than a decade, Henderson (NV) Police Department has its D.R.E.A.M. youth program and services that mentors students in the areas of highlight Decisions, Responsibilities, Education, Achievements, and Motivation. Henderson’s police chief is appointed. https://www.cityofhenderson.com/government/departments/police/community-relations-unit
The D.A.R.E. program’s primary focus was drug diversion so agencies moving to a program that addresses wider topics that prevent unfortunate circumstances is a good thing. Like any community program, they should be built upon the specific community’s need and resources available. Thankfully there are frameworks in place, created years ago, for all agencies in Santa Clara County to model and modify as needed.
This program is a real advancement over the previous DARE Program which our Police Officers used for years. The DARE Program had its own rules and regulations on how it was to be used and implemented. This is our program, and we are free to change, modify or alter it at any moment to better fit our Cities needs.
In fact the more you look into this new program, you can better appreciate just how much planning, time and effort went into modifying the previous DARE Program.
While DARE was a great program, my gut feeling is telling me this is going to be just that much better. Also it deals with students a year earlier at the 4th grade level, not the 5th grade which gives the schools more latitude time wise to see the positive results.
Lastly, this is Santa Clara’s program. I believe in time other Cities will reach out to us to see if they can also put it into play in their own Cities.
You have to wonder if we had an Appointed Chief of Police would something like this ever come to fruition?
Burt Field