Plugging the gaps

CHARLESTON - One of the key goals for Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen's department is to stop crime before it happens.

This predictive policing as he called it in his State of the Department Report to City Council earlier this week relies largely on using technology to analyze crime data and predict where the next criminal offense is likely to occur, but the department is also pursuing other avenues to stop crime before it happens.

Camp Hope is one such avenue.

Working with Charleston County Schools, the department runs a summer program for at-risk kids to teach leadership skills, personal responsibility, and respect for self and others. But the program also gives Mullen and his officers a way to build positive relationships between the community and law enforcement.

"He's too humble to mention it, but Camp Hope was Chief Mullen's idea," Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley said during a press conference Tuesday. "He was walking on the East Side and he said to himself, 'These kids need more hope.'"

That was more than five years ago, shortly after Mullen took over as chief. Since then the department has run the Camp Hope program, beginning with a series of two-week day camps in downtown. This summer the program expanded to West Ashley and John's Island.

Housed at West Ashley Middle School, the West Ashley Camp Hope program is a six-week, daily program, which operates from 8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

School resource officers assigned to schools in West Ashley run the programs and the Charleston County School District provides meals, said program director Sharon Robinson.

The camp also provides participants with a backpack and school supplies at the end to make sure they are prepared to return to school in the fall.

"We have a curriculum for them and extracurricular activities," Robinson said. "There is academic work and we take them on field trips."

Those trips have included harbor cruises, Riverdogs games, museum trips and more, with the goal of exposing the children, all ages 11-15, to various opportunities available to them in the community.

The program also works with community volunteers. Retired teacher Kathy Parks has been leading the academic component of the program two days a week. And volunteers with St. Andrews Church and Dr. Charles Brown, DMD, have been giving lots of time to the program as well, Robinson said.

The program ended Friday with a big picnic celebration, but on Thursday the kids got a special treat, former NFL player Terry Cousins stopped in to talk to them about planning for the future, including having a backup plan, taking care of each other, guarding their personal reputations, working hard, competing to be the best and finding ways to give back to the community.

Following his remarks he spent half an hour fielding questions, mostly about who he tackled during his career and which teams were the hardest to play against.

"Giving back can be done in many ways," Cousins said. "When I was playing, in about my eighth year I started taking guys under my wing and gave them the knowledge and experience someone else gave me. At some point, you'll have the opportunity to help someone do what you did even better. That's giving back."

"You've got to be unselfish," he continued. "Give your knowledge, share your knowledge when you get the chance."

Officer Donavan Moten is the school resource officer assigned to West Ashely High School. Many of the kids he worked with all summer at Camp Hope will be walking the halls at West Ashley High when school begins at the end of August.

"Overall they're a great bunch of kids," Moten said. "We'd much rather help them to succeed, rather than be out on the streets locking someone up."

A major goal of the Camp Hope program is to get involved early with these young adults, who because of various factors in their homes and surrounding communities, are statistically more likely to fall behind their peers, leave school early and wind up interacting with police officers in situations where they are either a victim or a suspect.

"Part of it is bridging the gap between the police and the community," Moten said. "Officers usually have a certain perception in the community and we want to dismiss that and let folks know that we're people too, we want the same things they want. Also we love the kids."

That love seems to be a two-way street.

"I like the program because when I came here I learned a lot of things that I didn't get from school or my parents," 14-year-old Teara Schaffer said. "I learned leadership and to respect others and self-respect. And we get to go on field trips."

Tristan McGill, 12, wasn't convinced he wanted to participate in Camp Hope when he showed up the first morning, but the officers running the program quickly won him over.

"When I came on the first day I didn't have nothing else to do," McGill said. "But then I liked it."

Trips to movies, water parks and other places made it worth continuing he said.

"It did a lot," Raven Boynton said. "They showed me you have to earn things, you can't just want it. They taught us the right way to do things. They showed me good things, positive things."

The kids were also teaching the officers, Moten said.

"We learned a lot," he said. "Being that we're police officers and we have to handle certain situations certain ways, when you're dealing with kids you have to kind of tone things down, slow down, learn the kids' personalities."

For some of the young people attending Camp Hope, their parents heard about the program and signed them up, but many were identified by their school guidance counselor, Robinson said.

"We strive to teach things they may not get in school or at home, we want to fill these voids, teach them to succeed," Moten said.

The first year of Camp Hope in West Ashley has been very successful he added.

"I can't wait 'til next year," Moten said.