On Wednesday, the Milwaukee County Youth Commission met for the first time this year.At the same time, the city of Milwaukee is seeing a spike in crime with kids under the age of 16.It's part of the reason why a group of 20 teens are now working to address the issues of kids committing crimes and act as a voice for their peers. New numbers show Milwaukee Police Department arrested children hundreds of times last year on suspicion of stealing cars and committing armed robberies. All of the numbers are for kids under the age of 16. In 2022, MPD said they arrested children 409 times for auto thefts and 76 times for armed robbery. In 2021, it was 554 times for auto thefts and 54 times for armed robbery. Already this year, MPD said it's arrested kids 44 times for those two crimes. WISN 12 News has covered dozens of these crimes committed by kids recently. On Sunday, five teens between the ages of 13 and 15 were arrested. Police said they chased the teens in a stolen car to 20th and North, where the stolen car crashed into another vehicle, killing a man inside. Last week, police said they arrested two kids, ages 12 and 13, for stealing a Kia and crashing it into a Glendale police squad car. "I wanted to give young people a voice and have young voices amplified," said Mia Moore, the co-chair of the commission. "Young people don't get the opportunity to be at the forefront of decision-making or policy-making.""I feel like there are programs out there to keep young people busy, but not a lot to cater to their needs," Moore said. "We need more resources, more things in schools, more programs to help people, internships, paid internships at that, so people don't need to steal cars."Moore's co-chair, Aaron Lee, weighed in as well. "The lack of role models we're seeing, I believe that's going to make the biggest difference," Lee said. "When people see people doing the right thing and it actually paying off them and the people around them, I think that'll make the difference for our community."County Executive David Crowley said he hopes the teens on the commission can help serve as role models for youth and steer kids in the right direction. "When we think of community violence in general, whether we're talking about Milwaukee County, or law enforcement, they can't do the work on their own. We need to make sure we're investing upstream as well," Crowley said. "When you think about young people, they have greatest influence with one another. The more we can prop up youth, the more we can encourage them to get others to stop doing bad things."Crowley said organizations like Urban Underground helped keep him out of trouble and guide him into leadership roles. "Even though the numbers are startling, that should be our wakeup call in this city," Sharlene Moore, executive director of Urban Underground, which works with youth leaders. "There's been too much time that's lapsed, where we haven't really created a strategy on how to support young people and their families. If we start to drill down on their needs, we can start to tackle that issue."Moore said it's up to everyone throughout the city to get involved. "We can't police our way out of it, it cannot just be one entity," she said.