MENTORING COULD BE KEY IN DRUG BATTLE

Drug busts are frustrating in a small town like Melrose, police Lt. Paul
Norton said.

"Drug investigations take a long time. You have to observe buys; you have
to make buys," he said. "It's a long and tedious process that costs money,
and the problem is there just hasn't been that money."

With federal and state grant money down to a trickle - between 1995 and
1999 the city received over $1 million in federal money for community
policing and now receives nothing, the police are trying to squeeze in
programs aimed at young people, which they hope will stop drug deals before
they happen.

Programs range from safety talks at the elementary schools to fledgling
mentoring programs that pair teens with police - a more established
mentoring program ran from 2000 to 2002 but was a victim of the budget ax.

"I wish it had continued because we did see a remarkable change in the
kids," said retired Melrose Police detective Mike Bloom. He said once the
program ended, in 2002, many of the participants went back to their old habits.

Renewed police efforts to restart mentoring also mesh with other programs
like the Melrose Alliance Against Violence's mentoring program at the
middle school still in development.

For now, Norton and Community Police-Liaison Officer Jim Applegate visit
elementary schools, hoping to dispel young people's apprehension towards
the police, early on.

"We'll talk about everything from bike safety to calling 9-11 and just our
job in general, so they know they can come to us," Applegate said.

This work and other programs are minimally funded by a state community
policing grant. Beyond that, police must sandwich their efforts between
regular police business. Police are now working on a mentoring program in
the Middle School, where individual police officers work with youth
identified by school officials as being at risk.

While former police-administered mentoring programs handled12-15 teens at a
time; the current fledgling program handles only four.

"If it gets more than that, we can't keep track of it," Norton said. With
budget shortfalls, every sworn officer is on call almost all the time, he
said. Including too many students would risk cutting short mentoring
sessions for emergency calls. That, Norton said, would be worse than not
having the program at all.

Patrolman Sean Tiernan said some teenagers are very receptive to police
officers, even if they might resist authority symbols like badges and
uniforms, at first.

"I think these kids are actually starving for leadership," Tiernan said.
"They really are starving for a legitimate authority figure to just treat
them like a human being and hold them accountable."

But in a recent group interview with a Free Press reporter, five Melrose
High School students said teenagers often tune out when police officers try
to talk with them about drug abuse. They said that is what has happened at
two "drug summits" held at the high school each of the past two school years.

The five students, who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity,
said among the police officers, doctors, parents and former addicts, the
parents of 2002 Melrose High School graduate Matthew Schille, who in
December of 2002 died of a heroin overdose, were most effective.

"It makes you think, that could be my family up there," one senior said.

Nevertheless, the police are continuing their efforts to get through to
middle school-age kids who may be at risk.

Tiernan said police officers have broken the ice by finding out what kids
are interested in. For athletic kids, the department's weight room is a
draw. Others responded well to patrolman Al Brown, who sometimes does
mechanic work on the police cruisers.

"If we can find these kids and put them with the right officer, we can do a
lot," Tiernan said. At the same time, he recognized the limitations of
trying to do that while on-duty. "If you get a call it's like, hey, you're
gone."

Meanwhile, the non-profit Melrose Alliance Against Violence is developing a
citizen-based middle school mentoring program, using funds from a $150,000
state grant.

"One of the major protective factors is having one consistent, caring
adult," said MAAV director Rebecca Mooney.

Alliance members said middle school is the right time to intervene with
children who may be close to making bad decisions.

"Everything starts happening in middle school," said alliance member Kathy
Perrone in a recent round-table discussion.

MAAV Member Elizabeth Schon Vainer agreed, saying that's because of the
independence teens have at that age. "They can meet behind Johnny's after
school without their parents knowing," she said. In school, they have more
unsupervised time - between classes and during blank periods, she said.

The MAAV mentoring program is based on a group-mentoring model developed
under state grants in the Melrose Police Department between 2000 and 2002.
That program is no longer in place, but MAAV members and police officers
agree it was a success - at least temporarily.

The idea for the mentoring program grew out of the Civilian Police Academy,
another now-defunct community policing program, which taught civilians the
basics of emergency response and how police do their jobs.

In the mentoring program, 12-15 middle schoolers identified as being
troubled met with volunteer mentors from the community. The group saw
presentations from SWAT team members, handwriting analysts, and went on a
field trip to the Billerica House of Corrections.

Bloom, who directed the program, said at first most of the kids did not
want to participate. But after three to four weeks, "We saw a change in
their personalities for the better," he said.

Mooney said the MAAV is planning its mentoring program carefully to ensure
the program will continue.

"The kids did great when they were in it, but the minute it was over, they
reverted back," Mooney said.

For kids who may lack dependable authority figures in their lives, the
impact of such a program falling through can be hurtful, she said. "That's
why you have to be so careful, because you don't want to hook this thing
up, and then have that go bad."