Security forces juvenile investigations mentor youth center students

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mike Meares
  • 96th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  For some students out of school on summer break, boredom can turn into mischief; mischief into crime; and crime into prosecution.

That's a cycle Airmen from the 96th Security Forces Squadron investigations team want to break by mentoring local students before boredom gets them into trouble.

"Most of the crime reported occurs during hours of darkness, and the number of juvenile incidents reported tends to triple during the summer months," said Paul Chapelle, investigations chief.

To reverse these trends, the investigations team kicked off a summer-long campaign June 5 by taking 32 Eglin Youth Center students to the paint ball fields at Hurlburt Field for a game or two of paintball assault.

"We try to get involved as much as we can," said Senior Airman Derrick Kohlenberger, 96th Security Forces Squadron investigations. "We want to build a rapport and an environment for them to be open with us. This event just happened to be fun for both of us."

According to Airman Kohlenberger, problems with young adolescents often start out small, but can become something greater if not caught early. Typical problem behavior on base ranges from petty theft to graffiti; whether it's an unsecured bicycle at someone's house or shoplifting at the Base Exchange.

"It is small petty criminal acts at first," he said. "We try to catch it and curb that behavior as early as possible. We would rather deal with them now rather than when they're 18.

"We want to be involved in the development of these children, not just be the disciplinarians," Airman Kohlenberger said. "Security forces are not the bad guys. We want more open two-way communication so they feel free to come to us."

Students like 8th grader Niki Scarveles, 13, understand what the Airmen are trying to accomplish at Eglin.

"They are people who can help us," she said. "They understand the situation better than we do."

She admits that she doesn't know everything, but she says she certainly knows the difference between right and wrong.

"If I was caught up in a situation where somebody was doing something wrong, I would definitely tell someone," she said. "It's the right thing to do. I have a very big conscience."

When asked which is worse, the act or getting caught, she quickly said the act was worse.

"If they didn't do it in the first place, they wouldn't have got caught," she said. "So committing the crime is really bad to begin with."

The 96th SFS has a memorandum of agreement with the State Attorney's office. When a juvenile is charged with a crime on Eglin, they go through the exact same process as they would had they been charged off base. On average Security Forces prosecutes more than 100 juveniles a year for various crimes.

The investigations team has organized a series of events throughout the summer for the students designed to help the students and Airmen get to know each other. These activities will focus on drug and alcohol awareness, visits from McGruff the Crime Dog and displays of security forces equipment and capabilities like vehicles, weapons and the K-9 unit.

"Community relations are an important part of being a law enforcement officer and this summer program is just a small part of what we do," Mr. Chapelle said. "Members of our squadron give back to the community year-round by volunteering their time toward a full range of activities. It's just part of being a cop."