From WCNC: Police say it's no secret that truant students drive up the crime rate, so they want to put those kids back in school. NewsChannel 36 spent the day with Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers Steve Arnold and Mike Sardo as they rounded up teens on the streets. Sardo and Arnold work in the Westover Division's truancy program.
"We recognized him from yesterday," Arnold said as the officers picked up a 14-year-old boy. "We had taken him back to school yesterday." "You can see here he's got 131 unexcused absences," Arnold said.
NewsChannel 36 questioned the teen and he told us he was on his way to school when he was arrested. "I want to go to school. I want to show some support for my family. I want to show a role model for my little brother," the teen said.
If the students are below the age of 16, the officers take them back to school and give them a lecture on the way. "I like to hear what you said about being a role model to your brother, but if he sees you skipping school or coming home in a police car or getting arrested or in trouble he's going to follow in your footsteps," Sardo said.
Thanks to a federal grant, the officers spend most of their day looking for kids skipping school with the goal of cutting crime. "If some of these kids are out here walking around they are not in school. They get together, 'Hey, let's break into a house. Let's break into a car,'" Arnold said.
The officers know where the students who skip like to hang out and they make it a point to show up there. Some of the targets are tram stations and convenience stores.
"They come in here trying to buy cigarettes and alcohol. You just know they are not supposed to be here," said Lindsey Arnautovic, who owns a convenience store on Woodlawn Road.
Westover is one of three divisions with a truancy program. The others are Freedom and Metro. If this program works, it could be expanded across the city.
