As San Quentin residents took turns making accountability statements in a large circle, over 35 police officers from various departments joined the conversation in hopes of brainstorming ideas to improve public safety and bring awareness to the school to prison pipeline.

Assistant Chief David Lazar and SQNews’s Michael Callahan co-hosted the discussion on police engagement, deterrents, and combatting youth crime.

The first round of discussions was about residents’ first police encounters, and residents shared their positive and negative interactions with law enforcement.

Resident Reggie Thorpe said his first experience was being taken from his parents by Child Protective Services. He said he was scared but he had to first think about his siblings.

“They put us in the police car and my siblings were crying and I wanted to cry, but I didn’t because I wanted to be strong for them,” he said.

Another resident, Demetrius, talked about two different experiences he had. His first encounter was selling marijuana to an undercover police officer. His second experience, however was more traumatizing.

“My friend threw a pickle at a police car and when the police came back, the ways he was talking to me was traumatizing,” he said.

Sitting across the room, resident Arthuro shared his experience of being dropped off in a rival gang’s neighborhood by police. He said he’d never forget the feeling of navigating his way out.

“The experience that I had stayed with me until I went to prison. I will never forget it,” he said.

A proud moment was shared when resident Andre Davis recognized Officer Jason Johnson for his work in the community.

“What this brother is doing in the community, I‘m sure a lot of you are doing the same things. This is what we need out in the community,” Davis said.

Assistant Chief Lazar shared some of the work that the San Francisco Police Department was doing in the community and told the incarcerated people that his office is striving to do great work and build community.

“We have to realize that people come from trauma, and at the end of the day we are all just people,” said Lazar. “In any profession we have challenges, but we have great people in San Francisco and they are in it for the right reasons.”

One person in particular was Officer Jason Johnson, who is a part of the Community Outreach Department of SFPD. He works with troubled youth by exposing them to historical education and field trips outside the inner city.

“In 2014 we started taking kids to Ghana,” he said. “Some of the people from the neighborhood that came through the program are now police officers,” said Johnson.