Kevin Bethel didn’t become a police officer to lock up children. But it was under his watch as deputy police commissioner that Philadelphia’s school to-prison pipeline was in full effect.
Now retired, Bethel is on a mission to keep children out of prison, with a police-led school diversion program that is showing impressive results.
“My issue became, what is the trauma of me taking a 10-year-old child, for example, the minimum age for us, putting him in handcuffs, and taking him out of the school?” he said. “What were we doing to our young people?”
Bethel sees Philadelphia’s success at diverting youth from arrests and detention as a pilot for other cities across the United States.
"If we can go through this process and then get police chiefs and other folks who manage policy and want to do things differently on board, I truly believe that policing can change the entire juvenile justice system," he said.
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