When LaTreasure Dickson was hired by the Brooklyn Park Police Department earlier this year, she became the city’s first-ever community intervention manager. By December, she will lead a nine-person team focused on reducing juvenile crime.
“The youth that are having the most frequent run-ins with police – the ones ending up in our detention center – they are the ones that we want to focus on because they need so much more help,” Dickson said.
According to Dickson, members of the new Community Intervention Unit will function more like case workers than police officers – their priority will be to connect known youth offenders to mental health services, sports programs and other resources to address the root causes of juvenile crime.
Right now, Dickson is focused on building up her team. “We’ll have a data analyst focused on crime statistics and mapping, two youth and families intervention specialists, and then six to eight community intervention specialists,” she said.
The data analyst will determine where crime rates are highest to help dispatch community intervention specialists, who will serve as the unit’s boots on the ground.