PLACENTIA : Detective Helping Youths Find Jobs

When Placentia police officers John Armstrong and Tom Valentine see gang members hanging out, they see more than just the potential for trouble.

The two detectives, assigned to the city’s gang detail, see youths without jobs and with little hope of getting one.

“The role models aren’t always there for them,” Armstrong said.

To help these youths get what Armstrong calls a legitimate chance to succeed, the pair have started a program to find jobs for gang members and other youths or young adults who have had confrontations with the law, and are interested in bettering their environment. They expect to meet with the first job candidates sometime this month.

They have jobs lined up in a furniture factory and a plastic molding plant, and are working with a bicycle manufacturer and a food company. Job candidates will go through the regular interview and hiring process, and will receive the same pay as other new employees.

Armstrong and Valentine will meet with prospective employees to coach them on the interview process. The detectives will maintain weekly contact with employees, and will be available to help employers with problems that arise.

Finding jobs for gang members poses some logistic problems. Most of the youths the officers work with have no regular transportation. Many will have to walk, which also poses problems.

“Some of these kids can’t walk through certain neighborhoods without getting in trouble,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong said they will have to consider gang affiliation when sending youths on interviews, and candidates must agree that job sites are neutral territory.

A typical candidate is someone who has shown signs of wanting to sever ties to gangs, such as a 21-year-old man whose gang activity the detectives have seen taper off and who has been looking for a job. “We’re looking for someone who wants to better himself,” Armstrong said.

Finding candidates for the program does not appear to be a problem. Since they began spreading the word, the detectives have received calls from youths wanting jobs. “We’ve been getting a lot of calls,” Valentine said. “I think we’ll have more kids than jobs.”

Finding businesses willing to hire kids who have been arrested or have other problems is not easy. But the detectives said they screen the candidates, as well as rely on their own knowledge.

“We’re not going to bring in kids who will be a detriment to this program, “ Armstrong said. “We want this program to be a success so we can show other businesses that this can work.”

Both detectives think getting jobs for at least some gang members will improve the city’s gang problems. By keeping busy, the youths will have less time for gang activity, Armstrong said. Even those whom the officers don’t reach might be affected, Armstrong said. “If they see their peers being successful, they might get interested in jobs,” he said. “We hope it will snowball.”

City Councilwoman Maria Moreno gave the program a cautious endorsement. “I think we have to give (Armstrong and Valentine) credit for looking at the preventive side” of gang control, Moreno said. “But just having a job is not enough. There needs to be steps to success.”

Moreno said she was encouraged by the officers’ willingness to do more than just confront gang members.

Finding jobs “shows they want to help out and that they see these kids as individuals,” she said.