California Police Chief- Fall 2013 | Page 36

LIB AT LARGE: Marin City teen, a human rights honoree, drawn to police career Tamalpais High School senior Davon Smith, on campus last week in Mill Valley, says people who go into police work should have a passion for it. ‘A lot of people are counting on you,’ he says. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal) By Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal A t a time when the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has gone viral in social media and students on campuses across the country are protesting the recent killings of young black men by police officers, 17-yearold Davon Smith, a Tamalpais High School senior active in the Black Student Union, has his own ideas about reforming law enforcement. He wants to be a cop. Teens don’t always look at the police with that level of trust, especially in minority neighborhoods like Marin City, where Smith lives. But Smith has a radically different perspective than many of his peers. “Nowadays, you hear a lot about police brutality, what police are doing wrong,” he says, sitting in Tam’s student center after school one recent afternoon. “As far as I’ve seen, they’re just doing their job. They’re not out to harm anyone or profile anyone.” A peer tutor at Tam, Smith is one of five high school seniors chosen by the Marin County Human Rights Commission to be honored at its annual Martin Luther King Jr. humanitarian awards dinner Davon Smith with Sausalito police Chief Jennifer Tejada, whose department accepted him for a paid internship. (Courtesy Sausalito Police Department) 36 California Police Chief | www.californiapolicechiefs.org Thursday night at Embassy Suites in San Rafael. The others a ɔ