Seven teens loitered in a San Francisco park, and before long two police officers shuffled over and started grilling them.

“Get over here,” a female officer yelled. “Sit your ass down.”

Five of the kids stared at the officer with wide eyes and promptly planted themselves on the ground. Two others crossed their arms and ignored the officer’s commands.

Suddenly, the officer burst out laughing and hugged the flustered kids. “Sorry,” she said, “sorry!”

This was the first role playing exercise of the day. Instead of standing in an imaginary park, the teens and police were in a conference room at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. The officers had been instructed to aggressively question the teens, who were told to then tell the officers how it made them feel. The seminar was part of a four-day training called Policing the Teen Brain, which is designed to help about 25 city police officers improve relationships with children and teens and equip cops with tools to de-escalate situations and avoid the use of force.

“Through this training, we hope to offer officers new skills for interacting with youth, give them a better understanding of why youth behave the way they do and strengthen officers’ relationships with young people in San Francisco,” Police Chief Bill Scott said.

After the role playing exercise, Lisa Thurau, CEO of Strategies for Youth, a national organization that works on improving officer and youth interactions, asked the teens how they felt about the officers’ behavior.

Additionally, a psychologist met with officers and explained mental health issues prevalent among teens and how police interactions can be traumatizing. The psychologist offered different techniques on how to talk to young people, which Officer Deandre Dudley found to be invaluable.

“It takes a little bit of social work to deal with kids,” said Dudley, who works as a rotating school resource officer at the 27 schools in the Bayview District. “It’s not cookie cutter. You have to exercise restorative justice. You have to exercise a little more patience, diplomacy.”

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