Police use ice cream to connect with community

By Mary Alford, The News-Enterprise
Original article HERE

Police use ice cream to connect with communityEnrique Fuentes, 5, grinned Thursday afternoon as Sue Childers handed him a vanilla ice cream cone inside Kroger on Dolphin Drive in Elizabethtown.

Childers, of the Citi­zens Police Academy Alu­m­ni Association, was there with the Eli­za­bethtown Police Depart­ment for its Cops and Cones community outreach event.

Public Affairs Officer Chris Denham said the event is a good opportunity for them to interact with children and adults in the community.

“Everyone loves ice cream,” he said with a laugh, noting Cops and Cones is much like Coffee with a Cop and other outreach events the department hosts throughout the year. He said Thursday marked the third year they’ve held Cops and Cones.

Multiple parents also used the event as a photo opportunity, having their children pose with their ice cream and an officer.

Resident Kim Jones was among those who stopped by for free ice cream. She said she thinks it’s good for the police to have community engagement events such as Cops and Cones.

“It definitely shows community involvement,” she said. “Anytime you can get kids and pa­rents not afraid … you know? Because some parents are afraid of police officers and they teach their kids, if you’re bad, the police officers are going to come and get you. Police officers are not all bad. They are here to serve and protect and keep you safe.”

Denham agreed. He said often parents do tell children that. And even though there is no ill intention when they say it, he said children have a hard time understanding the difference if it is true or not.

“We want kids to come up and talk to us. If kids need help, we want them to seek us,” he said.

In other EPD news, its Pack the Cruiser back-­to-­school drive has star­ted. Officers are accepting donations from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Walmart and Thursday at Kroger on Dolphin Drive.

Items they are collecting in­clude crayons, pencils, rulers, notebooks, backpacks, scissors and erasers. All donations will be evenly distributed between Elizabethtown Inde­pen­dent and Har­din County Schools, Denham said.

A collection box also is set up inside the lobby of the police department. Denham said they will be accepting items until school starts.