Chelsea expands 'Build the Base' youth outreach; school resource officers lead in‑school programs

Chelsea Police Chief Keith H. Hotton described the department's Build the Base youth outreach program as a targeted effort to engage middle‑ and high‑school students through fitness, life skills and wraparound supports.

"He developed a program and I think we had 45 male students from Chelsea High who signed up," Hotton said of Officer Damen Straight, the school resource officer who spearheaded the initial effort during February vacation. Hotton said the program expanded to include more than 115 students in an April vacation cohort with male and female role models and a licensed clinical social worker assigned to the police department.

Hotton credited school resource officers and other officers for multiple youth initiatives, naming Officer Damen Straight, Officer Dina Colola (who runs the 'cop cops and barbers' program), Officer Studo (middle school outreach), and a marine division that takes children fishing. He also described a comfort dog, Cash, used in roleplays and school visits.

The chief framed those programs as part of a broader juvenile‑focused strategy: revised juvenile policies aimed at diversion, reduced fingerprinting for certain misdemeanors and repeated outreach through navigators and community service staff.

"The younger we attract these youth to understand and that we're here to help them...we're going to have some midnight basketball programs," Hotton said, describing recreation and mentoring as complementary prevention strategies.

Hotton said juvenile arrests have fallen as the department has emphasized alternatives to arrest in lower‑level cases. He called for continued coordination with schools, the city manager’s youth commission and community partners to restore organized youth activities that had declined.

The episode included host Marne Mack asking how the Build the Base program was organized and who was involved; Hotton named several officers and staff as key facilitators.