COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nearly two dozen Columbus middle school students graduated from the Teen and Police Service Academy program on Thursday.
The 22 Mifflin Middle School students walked across the stage with their 12 mentor Columbus police officers looking on proudly.
TAPS is a mentorship program designed to pair CCS students with Columbus officers to reduce the social distance between youth and police.
"At first I was nervous and I was scared of the officers because I didn't know how it was going to be. They ended up being really nice people, really genuine people and very funny, some of them,” said TAPS graduate Myesha White.
White, who is in the 8th grade, is one of the graduates.
“It was fun, especially when we went on the field trip to the jail. We went down to the holding cell. I was scared the whole time. There were people in there, but they were telling us to listen to our parents and actually giving us good advice,” White said.
“I learn from each and every group that we work with,” said CPD officer Kofi Owusu-Ansah
The 11-week program connects the students with the officers to work on a service project and learn about different career paths.
“If we can get to them now, I think it is going to help us not have to get to them in the negative way later. All the positive relationships early I think are huge,” said Owusu-Ansah.
At a time when juvenile crime is on the news every day, Columbus City Council member and public safety chair Emmanuel Remy says the city needs more programs like taps.
“Seeing so many kids get involved, do community service projects, learn about public safety. We need to encourage more and more programming like this,” Remy said.
Now these teens know they a friendly face in the uniform.
“They are like really caring and really genuine people,” White said.