CINCINNATI — A group of Cincinnati teens is finding solutions for safer interactions with police officers after sharing their experiences and concerns during this month's Urban Champions Youth Summit with the Urban League.
The message at the summit was clear: "Lead the way, don't get led away." One powerful moment featured a youth-led panel discussing how to handle encounters with police, where teens expressed their fears.
"They don't know how to deal with police, because the stories they hear, or like what they witness, puts fear in them," said Kriscia Potts, an Urban Champion teen.
Of 177 youth surveyed, more than a third reported negative or harmful experiences with law enforcement. Their top fear? Getting hurt or killed during police interactions. When asked what they would do upon seeing police, top responses included:
- “Stay calm.”
- “Record the interaction.”
- “Walk away slowly.”
"If you don't know what to do and you're saying anything and you didn't do anything, you can accidentally incriminate yourself. But not every cop is bad," said Cameron Carrick, another Urban Champion teen.
These findings come amid ongoing conversations about youth safety, community trust and policing practices.
After the panel, I invited three of the teens to talk with me about these issues. We talked about how easily teens can access firearms, a concerning factor that contributes to the broader issue of youth encounters with police.
Watch below: Three teens I spoke to talk about the feat of interacting with police
Khara Hawkins, who attended the summit, expressed concern about how fear can escalate situations.
"I feel like it already makes you look like you're like in trouble for something and they'll take that and be like 'Oh, why are they running?' and they might end up shooting you."
Watch: Cincinnati teens and a retired officer develop solutions for safer police interactions:
I brought these concerns to Andre Ewing, a retired Cincinnati Police Department officer with nearly 30 years on the force. He has worked extensively with youth and recently led a street safety workshop. Ewing emphasized the importance of an officers' approach.
"I absolutely agree. There's been times where I haven't responded to a scene, and you have young men as well as young women, acting out, constantly pushing, punching their hands, and yelling out. And I'll let them go and have their moment," said Ewing. "My body language as a police officer should not always be super aggressive, because I've already analyzed the scene, and all of a sudden, the perception that they thought was going to be aggression, they actually lowered it."
The teens noted that African American children are often taught to make their hands visible when interacting with officers.
"You could be reaching in your pants for a phone, anything, but they don't know that. Police officers are people; they do have families to get home to. So they have to know whether or not to risk their life or try to save yours," said Potts.
Watch below: The teens talk about solutions to find a better way to interact with police
That's why Ewing teaches youth about the C.A.L.M. principles.
"C is for calm. A is for being alert, stay alert in the situation. L is for listen, just listen to what is being said. And M is for having a positive mindset that I am going to get out of this situation," Ewing said.
These principles resonated with Cameron Carrick, who turned his life around through boxing after going to juvenile court for fighting.
"It really showed me I don't want to do nothing like this," Carrick said. "They had the power to take me away from my family, send me away, do a bunch of stuff. But now it's like, you really only get one life to live."
Ewing says he's willing to meet with both youth and parents to help bridge the gap between communities and police.
Watch below: Ewing elaborates on his principles for positive interactions with police
