WESTMINSTER : People / Spotlight on achievers : Officer’s Specialty Is Young People
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Around the Westminster Police Department, Capt. Steve Martinez is known as something of a professor of juvenile behavior.
Martinez’s expertise comes not only from years of police work but also from a recent stint at the Delinquency Control Institute.
The program at USC focuses on the latest academic research on young people and their place in society. It examines why juveniles commit crimes and included lectures from experts in human behavior and urban life.
Martinez, 41, head of the Westminster Police Department’s operations division, said law enforcement officials must pay more attention to children and teens before they get into trouble.
“We need the beat officers to work with kids at an early age and give them alternatives to the gang life,” he said. “We need to look at more community policing . . . that tries to find creative ways to deal with gangs.”
--COMPILED BY SHELBY GRAD AND RUSS LOAR
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