As the small-town detective had lunch with the little boy who had just seen his uncle shot, little did she know that a few years later she would arrest him for burglarizing cars.
But in the eastern Wake County town of Zebulon, that’s exactly what police saw: young lives destroyed by trauma and then lost to the cycle of crime. The little boy at lunch faced one charge after another and ended up in juvenile detention at the age of seventeen.
Now he is charged with murder in the shooting death of an innocent bystander.
Police Captain Edwin Killette, 41, is tired of seeing children end up like this. That’s why Killette, his colleagues and two graduate students from Triangle in Zebulon, with a population just 2% larger than Raleigh’s, are working to change the structure of policing youth.
The Zebulon Police Department last month launched its Community Advocacy & Resource Enhancement unit, the only program of its kind in North Carolina. The CARE unit consists of two interns enrolled in Master of Social Work programs and is unique for its focus on helping traumatized youth.
This is how it works:
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If a police officer encounters a minor who is a witness, suspect or victim of a crime, or whom the officer believes has suffered trauma, the officer refers them to the CARE unit.
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A trainee from the CARE unit will contact the young person’s family and arrange a meeting.
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The social worker can then connect the family with social services or other resources.
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The social worker will continue to work with the family as necessary.
“We specifically target youth because if we can stop that trauma or at least buffer it when it occurs, the likelihood of them becoming an adult offender can be significantly reduced,” said Killette, who oversees the unit.
How it started
The CARE unit grew out of a project by New Blue colleague Detective Kerry Burke, an initiative started by two North Carolina police officers to encourage innovation among young officers across the country, Killette said.
According to New Blue’s website, between 2013 and 2022, Zebulon saw a 106% increase in the number of children committing crimes and a 45% increase in the number of children who witnessed or were victims of crime or trauma. As part of the program’s Class of 2023, Burke hoped to change that by promoting trauma-informed policing for children and their families.
Burke discovered the Sylva Police Department’s Community Care program, which uses interns from Western Carolina University, Killette said. That led to the model for Zebulon’s CARE unit, although Zebulon decided to focus on youth rather than the entire community.
New Blue gave the Zebulon Police Department a $5,000 grant to buy body armor, computers, radios and business cards for the trainees, Killette said. Last winter, the department began recruiting interns, reaching out to NC State and NC Central universities.
“They were very helpful in choosing people that they thought would be able to do this effectively and work in these types of environments,” Killette said.
Ultimately, the department selected Kayla Hawkins, 27, a second-year master’s student at NCCU, and Sarah Jump, 24, a second-year master’s student at NC State. Hawkins operates Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., while Jump operates Wednesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The two interns receive part-time wages, Killette said.
And while the department waited for the interns’ fall semester to begin in late August, officers began taking referrals for the CARE unit in June, Killette said. This allowed Hawkins and Jump to step in from day one.
“It was a relief to see how hospitable the people were,” Jump said in an interview. “It makes me very excited, just because of the impact we can make for children and young people who can use our services.”
As civilians with no prior law enforcement experience, the world of policing was a big change, both interns said.
And even though they’ve only been on the job for a month, they said they already know their time with the CARE unit will leave a mark.
“I’m just blessed to be here,” said Hawkins, a former juvenile justice counselor. “Miracles can happen and things can happen when you least expect it, and this opportunity came just in time.”
Measuring success
Police are working with investigators to measure the unit’s success. In the meantime, the CARE unit will look at trends in 911 calls, including for specific homes, and quarterly crime statistics.
While Killette hopes crime rates will drop, he says the unit will continue to focus on helping prevent and intervene on traumas that can lead to a life of crime, like the little boy the detective had lunch with years ago.
The department didn’t have the resources at the time to get the boy the help that could have changed his life — and, Killette wonders, possibly saved the life of another child.
“If the CARE unit would have been there where we could have them communicate with him and get his family the things they needed for him, if we could have just changed his life [around] just a little bit, would that girl still be alive? he said.
