The importance of engaging youth in crime prevention, community wellness, and trust building cannot be overstated. The profession of policing, at its core, is focused on the prevention and reduction of crime. The daily focal points—the latest crime statistics, deployment of personnel; clearance rates; and, currently, the status and health of the workforce in the middle of a pandemic— can consume the day. Those areas are critical and necessary. However, despite those realities, long-term impacts can be made by ensuring the agency’s vision includes a deliberate embracing of a well-thought-out, nuanced, customized youth engagement strategy. An effective youth-police engagement strategy enhances crime prevention and promotes police legitimacy—and is, simply, the right thing to do for all communities.

In 1954, a U.S. patrol officer was approached by a 12-year-old who had just had his bike stolen. The child said he was going to “whoop” the thief if he ever caught him. The officer listened and asked the youth, “Do you know how to fight?” He then invited the young man to a local gym where the officer mentored young boxers. The youth accepted the offer, and a few years later, the young man won a gold medal in boxing at the 1960 Olympics. Officer Joe Martin had taken the time to engage with the young Cassius Clay, who became known as Muhammad Ali to the world. Lonnie Ali said it best at Muhammad’s funeral in a packed stadium filled with heads of states, former presidents, and other dignitaries: “America must never forget that, when a cop and an inner-city kid talk to each other, then miracles can happen.”