SCHOOL ADVOCACY AND JUVENILE CRIMES BUREAU

The School Advocacy Bureau (SAB) was established in 1997 with the specific aim of providing special attention to one of the most at risk communities in Brooklyn: students. Its goal is to establish and maintain a safe educational environment by creating better and open lines of communication between educators, students and law enforcement. By achieving this goal, school law enforcement agents become involved earlier in criminal investigations thus relieving the school administrators from this burden and allowing them to focus on their primary role as educators. This approach has also greatly improved the prosecution of cases by making sure all legal protocols are followed and maintained.

To that effect, the School Advocacy Bureau provides three primary functions: Prevention, Education and Prosecution.

The key to successful prosecution is to prevent crime within schools from happening in the first place. This is a main objection for the School Advocacy Bureau and to that end the Bureau’s supervisors conduct various crime prevention workshops throughout the Brooklyn school system from 7th grade on up through high school. These workshops handle a multitude of issues including peer pressure, anti-bullying, how to make wise choices as well as issues relating to gangs within the schools and are effective for all students regardless of grade point average or their goals in life. SAB participates in Career Days, Law Days and Law Week programs and judges various Mock trial competitions throughout Brooklyn.

The second function of the School Advocacy Bureau is education. SAB performs awareness workshops in conjunction with the District Attorney’s other bureaus and units for parents and school administrators in an effort to educate the school community. SAB also conducts ongoing training for members of the NYPD’s uniformed task force bureau and NYPD school safety agents. Educating and working together with properly trained NYPD officers within the schools is essential in not only creating a safe educational environment but in helping to foster the relationship between students and police officers and to make sure that all proper and legal protocols are followed when a crime has occurred.

The last function of the School Advocacy Bureau is prosecution. The bureau is responsible for handling both felony and misdemeanor prosecution of school related crimes. This includes not only crimes against students and school staff that happen on school campus but also crimes that occur going to and from school, internet crimes and sexual assaults. Additionally, SAB is responsible for investigating and prosecuting designated Juvenile Offender crimes.

To learn more about arranging an SAB training or workshop for your school, or about any of the bureau’s services, call 718-250-2051.