Finding a connection between police officers and young people is the goal of a Newburgh Police Department program.

Lieutenant Joseph Rutigliano believes the Youth and Police Initiative is important to the department. It began as a training for new cadets and evolved from there.

“It takes us out of the uniform, and you can see a little bit of who we are,” Rutigliano said. “And at the end of the day, we're all humans. And that's why I think this program is so great, because it really brings together the community and the police and it kind of breaks down some of that, that animosity between the two of us.”

According to Officer Daniel D’Elicio, the program has been in place for 10 years and has graduated more than 400 students.

“Our administration … they really believe in it,” D’Elicio said. “The week-long program is a good foundation for us. We did have a junior Police Academy; the follow up with the new administration is very committed to get back that program going again.”

The program, officials say, is designed to show kids there’s more to police officers than just the badge.

“We want the students to see past these uniforms know that they can trust the police in their community, that we're all people, that we face people problems,” D’Elicio said. “The biggest message that we try to instill is that we're trying to appreciate staff, we're trying to work to gain their trust and show them at the end of the day [that] yeah, we all are police officers. This is a job and career that we chose. But again, we're here that we're here to help in any way we can. And we are definitely committed to building good human relationships.”