ALTON – Local law enforcement agencies are always trying to find out ways to help foster positive relationships with the community’s youth. With community support for the men and women and blue coming out in droves after the death of Alton native Officer Blake Snyder, a push to unite the two groups is needed now more than ever.
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Fortunately for the Alton Police Department, they may have found a solution, and it seems to be as simple as picking up a basketball.
During the Second Annual Ballin’ with a Cop event, hosted at the YWCA in Alton, several police officers from the APD hit the court alongside area children and played several rounds of basketball, had free throw and three-point challenges and even made their own rendition of the “mannequin challenge."
Chief Jake Simmons of the Alton Police Department said that the event, along with the precinct’s other community engagement events are opportunities to grow great relationships with the area’s youth.
“This is a way for us to get out and show the kids that we’re one of them — that we pull our pants up one leg at a time like them, go to the grocery store — and we’re out here having fun with them,” Simmons said.
Tammy Smith, Sickle Cell Program Coordinator and Founder of A Precious Organization, the event’s co-sponsor, said that the current state of the world is definitely a good reason to bring the community and law enforcement together.
“We’re bringing the community and the police officers to have fun and get to know each other. With everything that’s going on in the world today, I took advantage of the resources I have available here to do my part in finding a solution.
“This is a great opportunity for people to get involved and get to know the people that protect and serve us,” she said.
These positive interactions mean the world to both the children involved and the officers themselves.
“Every positive contact we have just makes our job that much easier with these kids,” Simmons said. “The nationwide climate that’s going around, we need as much as those contacts as we can get.”
