Promote the aggressive investigation of all violent crimes and the arrest and detention of violent youthful offenders.
Increase the number of sworn, trained and equipped community policing officers.
Create a resource manual for law enforcement agencies that clarifies existing community/government programs to support community policing.
Reprioritize police resources, increasing the numbers of youth service, school resource, DARE, and GREAT officers available.
Increase the level of federal support and technology for small/rural police departments to support youth violence reduction.
Improve police department/school relationships to be more effective, expanding the SRO role to provide non-traditional in-school services.
Conduct research to identify and evaluate those police programs for youth that are effective.
Revise training curriculum of police officers on how to approach potentially violent confrontations with youth.
Increase the availability of technology support to local police PCS, laptops, crime analysis software, gun tracing centers, to anticipate and interdict violence.
Improve/expand the training for school resource and youth officers to reflect current needs and to utilize anger/violence reduction techniques.
Recognize and reward non-traditional police performance to balance officer perception of the importance of these activities.
Call for a universal increase/expansion of community policing efforts to increase interaction between community-based youth programs and the police.
Identify effective programs to keep troubled/trouble-making students out of classrooms and in alternative programs.
Utilize school facilities, where available, as centers for community activity after school, during evening hours and throughout summer months.
Put standards in place to promote a safe, disciplined learning environment, for example uniforms, dress codes, zero tolerance for drugs, alcohol, weapons.
Keep as many schools as possible open after hours safe havens for students, with expanded versus reduced extracurricular activities.
Bring law enforcement officers into schools in leadership roles, using a team approach between police and teachers.
Create a tone of zero tolerance for juvenile crime of all types on school campuses with swift punishment and effective alternative sanctions in place.
Create greater resources for alternative education programs for high-risk children with emotional/behavioral problems.
Promote stronger financial/programmatic commitment to public schools to insure equitable resources to all types of communities.
Integrate violence reduction strategies and training into existing course materials in schools.
Reform and redesign teacher educational curriculums to respond to real current needs.
Create a national awareness campaign treating youth violence as a public health crisis/disease.
Ensure that medical personnel in emergency rooms provide services beyond triage to youths evidencing injuries from weapons or other violent confrontations.
Develop mandatory public health programs in schools and that treat youth violence as an "epidemic."
Expand the use of juvenile assessment centers where teams of professionals assess a child's needs and make recommendations prior to/or after adjudication.
Develop a "swift and sure" justice model for all criminal acts, with immediate and graduated sanctions that are local and community based.
Put in place a new system for determining juvenile v. criminal court jurisdiction that is rational and based on the principals of individualized justice.
Enact laws that give juvenile courts jurisdiction over parents and hold them liable for criminal acts of children.
Create an omnibus correctional program within the juvenile justice system that insures both secure removal from society and educational/rehab opportunity.
Develop deterrent programs for first time offenders, that include punishment, restorative justice for victims, use of teen courts and peer panels.
Train local agencies to establish better criteria/methods to identify habitual offenders, making more effective use of SHOCAP.
Ensure a consistent, continuum, approach to violent youth with incarceration for the most violent offenders.
Take strong countermeasures to deglamorize gang lifestyle, using RICO statutes, safe street task forces, to indict gang members and reduce gang activity.
Expand victim/offender interaction in the juvenile justice system to promote healing of victims and full accountability for offenders.
Create model programs to demonstrate how criminal,juvenile, and family court systems can share information to interdict future violence.
Expand alliances among social service, education, mental health, public health, child welfare, juvenile justice and law enforcement agencies.
Increase the collaboration and cooperation among federal agencies like Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services.
Design multi-agency teams where clear policies are in place, resources are shared, participation is monitored, all are accountable, and each partner makes equitable contributions of staff/monetary resources.
Encourage local and national media to provide balanced coverage of youth issues by including positive youth activities and successful programs.
Demand that the media (network/cable TV, movie industry, music industry) be accountable for its programming, balancing its representation of violence.
Make use of total cost data to dramatize the true economic consequences of youth violence, with an emphasis on the quality of life lost.
Educate citizens on the reality of gun injuries (accidental injury, death) to refute the perceived "safety" of owning/carrying guns for self protection.
Disseminate information about programs that work to local officials who can replicate these programs.
Provide more information and technical assistance to all local agencies on successful youth violence programs through the Office of Justice Programs, particularly OJJDP.
Provide additional funding support to proven programs, like the Boys and Girls Clubs, Police Athletic Leagues, plus newer/innovative programs.
Create more summer jobs for youth through public/private partnerships involving recreation departments, schools and youth employment programs.
Encourage implementation of locally driven youth violence prevention strategies that include goal setting, reinforcing positive lifestyles, and extensive mentoring opportunities.
Ensure the commitment of federal, state and local resources to help replicate and expand solid grass-roots violence-reduction efforts.
Provide aggressive evaluation and measurement of current programs, retooling/revamping ineffective responses to better fit community/youth needs.
Establish solid information sharing systems among police, justice, and school officials engaged in multiple community-based youth programs.
Create, and make available where appropriate, juvenile CHRI to aid law enforcement and justice personnel respond effectively to youthful offenders.
Eliminate as many barriers as possible to promote information sharing among law enforcement, public health, social service, education, treatment and community-based programs.
Introduce, if necessary, legislation to mandate the sharing of information on juvenile offenders by police, courts, schools, and program agencies.
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