SAPD cadets get a feel for what it’s like to be homeless
San Antonio police cadet Josh Barrientes lay enclosed in cardboard boxes.
“Not safe.” “Why am I still here?” Valerie Narvaez wrote Barrientes’ thoughts on the outside of the box with a Sharpie.
It’s a temporary moment for Barrientes, but it’s the only respite some people experiencing homelessness in the downtown area can find to get a night’s sleep.
Thanks to San Antonio Police Department’s Community Immersion Program, a pilot project that puts police cadets in internships with area community organizations like Christian Assistance Ministry, or CAM, Barrientes is gaining a new perspective about the people he will encounter on the beat when he graduates from the police academy.
Randomly selected cadets are placed into weeks-long internships with volunteering community organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club of San Antonio, Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA and Harper’s Chapel.
Joel Pope, community engagement officer, said the program has been developing since 2021 when Chief William Mcmanus tasked him and a fellow officer with bridging the gap between the community and police.
The two based this program on psychologist Gordon Allport’s theory that social contact between different groups can reduce prejudice.
From there, police reached out to community mentors and asked if they would work with cadets.
“That was another genesis moment, where we said, ‘What if we could bring cadets that are not officers to the communities that they’re going to be serving prior to them having the uniform? ’ ” Pope said. “The uniform means different things to different folks. I think different people have different ideas, and that’s OK. That’s great. But we need to share those ideas, or we’re not going to know.”
Narvaez herself is the director of homeless services at CAM. Her exercise was drawn from her personal experience of going above and beyond to help Neville Kampf, an Army veteran who once was homeless and slept in cardboard boxes layered together because his symptoms of schizophrenia were so challenging to treat.
On Wednesday evening, she led a trio of cadets through Kampf’s story, including her daily efforts to reach him through his schizophrenic episodes with a morning delivery of breakfast and coffee.
The cadets were focused on every word as she recounted how difficult it was to reach him at first as he shouted obscenities downtown and traced the wall with his fingers, then how he slowly connected with Narvaez more with each checkin.
She also highlighted the work of San Antonio police officers who make the effort to bring people experiencing mental health episodes and drug overdoses to area services.
The cadets have already been with Narvaez to Communities Under the Bridge, which provides food and ministry to the homeless community. She said the officers listened to a grieving resident whose friend died by suicide.
“We’re not only showing them these things, but we’re also arming them with resources so they know that there are these low-barrier options in our community for those individuals to get help,” she said.
Narvaez said the program is “absolutely” working as cadets now on patrol return to CAM.
“Their (the officer’s) approach is very real and different. I can just tell that they feel connected and they feel a part of and that they’re just happy to respond,” She said. “They’re happy to bring someone over here instead of maybe taking them somewhere else.”
She hopes the program will expand nationwide.
In addition, SAPD and the city’s Office of Innovation are partnering with Brown University, Texas A&M San Antonio and Georgetown University to research the impacts of community policing.
Approximately 70 officers have been through the program so far.
Officer Francisco Javier, who was among the first cadets to try the program in 2022, said the program gave him a new perspective on central patrol, covering downtown and parts of the North and West Sides.
“It helped out a lot because you get to know who’s around. You get to know how to get around,” he said.
Javier, who moved to San Antonio from his hometown of New Jersey to join the force, saw it as an opportunity to learn and get to know the area. He worked with pastor Vincent Robinson and outreach workers who helped a man experiencing homelessness get back on his feet.
“I never understood why people become homeless. I got a good aspect through asking why from him,” Javier said. “You get to put yourself in their shoes and understand where they’re coming from.”