photo by steed media service

Like a Marine boot camp drill instructor, Detroit Police Officer Geoffrey Townsend runs a program that successfully peels every layer of negative behavior from a child’s personality. Then Townsend’s Reality Check Detroit program transforms youngsters into high-achievers who exemplify respectability and leadership qualities.

“First we make them see the error [of] their ways. We make them see it. … then we do things to make them change. We give them no options. Zero options. You’re going to work with us until you see the change and make the change,” says Townsend.

Townsend is undertaking the radical approach to preventing preteens and young teenagers from committing the same social infractions he did. After having a child as a teenager, Townsend was a social misfit before becoming an illiterate homeless statistic at age 25. After peeling himself off the urban concrete and dusting himself off, Townsend taught himself to read. He then passed the test to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a police officer after failing the test five times. His childhood fuels his adulthood goals of transforming young lives.

“We get into their heads and break them down, [and] then we start building them up and making them feel special about themselves. … We make them mentor other children that are coming behind them in the program. After [the] eighth week, we start what we call positive reinstruction. We start making that child feel so good about themselves. We make them become leaders. …,” he says. “We make them become individuals who think for themselves instead of letting others think for them. We make them become the locomotive instead of the caboose [so they can] pull other people with them.” -terry shropshire

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