Erie Police Athletic League continues growing at time when juvenile crime is on the rise

The Erie Police Athletic League celebrated a few more milestones over the past week.

One of its participants, Aniya Gambill, became the first PAL member to graduate from high school, a fete other members and PAL organizers celebrated with a surprise party that was filmed and posted on the program's Facebook page.

PAL members spent a week at a camp at the Erie Boys & Girls Club and traveled to Presque Isle State Park to swim and partake in other activities as part of the event.

A select number of PAL members were chosen to attend the program's third-annual Junior Police Academy, which begins July 10. Aniya is one of those academy cadets.

Milestones continue to pile up for the Police Athletic League, which was resurrected in the city in 2016 following a roughly 40-year absence. What started as an after-school mentoring program at one city elementary school involving a small group of students and a handful of police officers now exists in buildings throughout the Erie School District and at other area schools.

PAL now counts 1,200 children as participants, and more than 90 officers from the Erie Bureau of Police and several other local law enforcement agencies now serve as mentors to the children.

"It's a great program. It really provides the students with a number of different experiences they wouldn't otherwise have," Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito said. "And the program really complements the community schools model. One of the goals of the model is to provide additional experiences and opportunities for kids after school."

PAL's growth and expansion continues at a time when Erie has seen a recent uptick in juvenile-related crime, particularly gun crime. But organizers and supporters of the program say those involved in criminal activity make up a very small percentage of Erie's youth, and that more kids are being attracted to PAL's relationship-building efforts and the benefits the program offers.

"It's kind of like there's a line in the sand. You have these younger juveniles that aren't getting the structure at an early age that are now deciding from a conflict resolution standpoint to now I'm going to pick up a gun to settle differences. Fortunately for us, we don't have those kids," said Erie police Lt. Tom Lenox, the city police bureau's PAL coordinator.

Building relationships

PAL's mission is to help curb crime in the city by having police mentor Erie's youth and build relationships with them, as well as with their families.

Erie Police Chief Dan Spizarny said PAL helps the officers in his department as much as it helps the city's youth. A number of Erie police officers are not married and don't have children, and the program allows those officers to interact with children, to learn about their families a little bit and have some empathy about what some of the children have gone through. It also teaches them how to treat people with respect in order to get respect back, he said.

"I think we're seeing the benefits of the program already but I think, citywide, in the next 10 years the benefits are going to be great. We're going to have all of these young adults who have been through the program and are familiar with the officers, familiar with the way police operate. I just think it's going to build better relationships and overall be beneficial to the city," Spizarny said.

PAL doesn't just build relationships between the police and the community's young. It also helps the children build leadership skills, helps them with their self-esteem, helps them develop problem-solving skills and gives them a sense of pride in their community, Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz said.

"And it's encouraging to see the older kids come back and help the younger ones, which I think is a testament to the success of that program," Hirz said.

More: EMTA donation provides buses for growing Erie Police Athletic League mentoring program

Taking the right path

Lenox said he and the other PAL officers who work with children in the schools or at outside activities, including the various camps, talk regularly about the gun violence and other crimes. Mentors are having a lot more direct, intense conversations about what's going on with teenage PAL participants, he said.

Lenox said he tells the participants he talks to that many may have already been approached about doing the wrong thing, like holding onto something for someone else with the promise of getting paid for doing so.

"And I keep reinforcing that, hey, that's a short shelf life. There isn't a kid that doesn't want to make easy money when you're being brought up in a poor environment where you don't have a lot of things. But you have to resist that temptation and have that understanding that it is temporary. Eventually you're going to get caught up in it, then you are going to lose your freedom, you're going to deflate your own balloon because you aren't going to be able to achieve the things that you set out to do," he said.

Lenox said the kids in PAL and those not involved who may be getting into trouble all have the same wants and needs. They want affiliation, family, acceptance and someone to believe in them, he said.

"It reinforces why this program is so damn important. Even if our kids hear a message a day from one of our officers, that might be enough to get them through the day, the week, the month, and prevent them from going on that other side of the tracks," Lenox said. "A lot of these kids involved in shootings have never been told I believe in you, you can do great things if you stay focused, stay in school, go to school every day, don't get caught up in the traps that are going on in the city. That's what makes this program so special, because we are saving some of these kids."

Another goal of PAL is to give Erie's youth a closer look at law enforcement in an effort to get at least some of the program's participants interested in pursuing a career in police work. It fits in with Mayor Joe Schember's goal since taking office of adding more diversity to the Erie Bureau of Police by, among other things, drawing more community members into the profession.

Lenox, who is also the city police bureau's recruitment officer, said the PAL Junior Police Academy was created to give a select number of students who have shown an interest in a law enforcement career a more in-depth look at various aspects of the job.

The program added a new camp, the forensics, intelligence and crime scene camp, this summer. That camp, to be held at Mercyhurst University July 14-16, will provide the 45 to 50 PAL participants who have been through the Junior Police Academy a deeper look at certain aspects of law enforcement work, Lenox said.

More: Education grant from Erie Insurance to send Police Athletic League kids on more adventures

A summer of fun

Before PAL students and law enforcement officers resume the program's after-school sessions once the school year begins, Lenox and the other coordinators will run through a number of upcoming special activities.

In addition to the Junior Police Academy and the forensics camps, PAL will host its seventh-annual communter camp at Gannon University July 24-28.

"My goal is to get 400 to 500 kids there, and I will do it. So that's pretty exciting," Lenox said.

In early August, organizers are chartering four buses to take 150 to 200 kids to Washington, D.C.

A week before school resumes, PAL will take a small group of participants to New York City. A small group of kids will also travel to Latrobe for Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, and during the regular season a few kids will be taken to a couple of Steelers games, Lenox said.

"We've got a lot going on, and it's a good thing," he said. "Now we're starting to see the fruits of the labor."

Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Police Athletic League continues growing as juvenile crime rises