Hot line set for teens in police abuse cases

A hot line for teenagers to report allegations of police brutality is in operation at the request of several city councilors and Boston area state lawmakers.

The Juvenile Justice Center at Suffolk University Law School, which advocates for teens on civil rights issues, created and is running the forum. Its director, Lisa Thurau-Gray, said she believes it is critically important to have an outside group tracking how the Boston Police Department and other agencies treat youths.

''In a city that has no civilian review board and a complaint system that doesn't respond to kids' complaints and parents' complaints for kids, this is an effort to structure responses and inform the BPD of how successful their interactions with youth are" Thurau-Gray said.

''This is a city that proclaims its success with community policing, but for community policing to work, there has to be a level of empathy, respect, and relationship-building and that is not accomplished by police who jump out of cars, frisk youths, and treat them like criminals."

Thurau-Gray said she hopes the hot line, which was launched Saturday, leads to improved relations between youths and police and can make Boston a safer city by increasing teenagers' involvement in the criminal justice system.

She said she plans to issue a report every six months documenting calls to the hot line, which she said will track interaction between youths and police from the Boston Police Department, Municipal Police, MBTA Transit Police, and private security companies.

Councilor at Large Sam Yoon said the hot line grew out of a series of meetings he and other minority politicians representing Boston neighborhoods have had with residents concerned by violence.

He said that he was especially moved by a City Council hearing in February where youths offered their views on violence and policing.

''We heard direct testimony about interactions with police where [youths] were doing nothing wrong, but the police were very aggressive in their approach," Yoon said.

Councilor at Large Felix D. Arroyo agreed, saying that many teenagers feel stereotyped by law officers. Arroyo also said he thinks it's important for an outside body to gather complaints so that the community has a better idea of their frequency.

''We want to make clear these cases do exist," Arroyo said.

Thurau-Gray said she was motivated to launch the hot line by her firsthand knowledge of a number of incidents in which youths alleged abuse and the Boston Police Internal Affairs division did little to follow up.

She said that last July, for instance, a group of teenage girls she represents were punched and kicked by police.

Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said that while she could not reach Internal Affairs officials to discuss the case cited by Thurau-Gray, the division sides with civilians in an unusually large percentage of complaints. Driscoll also said the department supports the hot line.

''We welcome the participation of our community partners who have a mutual concern relating to the communities' perception of how it is being policed," Driscoll said. ''We take all allegations of police misconduct very seriously."

John Nucci, vice president of government and community affairs at Suffolk University, said Thurau-Gray's work is academic research and does not suggest the university believes the police are abusive toward youths.

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com