There is something very telling about school-age children asking for autographs from five brand-new cops whose first day on patrol included a visit to a local school.
The Norwood Police Department in Massachusetts had a swearing-in ceremony on February 2, 2023, with five new police officers jutting their hands and vowing their official oath in government chambers.
A Norwood PD press release stated the following: “After being sworn in today, NPD’s newest officers were taught the basics by Chief Brooks. That included some community policing at the Balch Elementary School as well as some meet and greets while on foot patrol uptown.”
Some police departments swear in their cops and have them mentally prep for a few days before reporting for their first tour of duty. Other law enforcement organizations, like the Norwood PD, apparently get right to it and hit the ground running.
Norwood police Chief William G. Brooks III, whose hands-on principles have served him and the citizens well through much of his police tenure spanning almost five decades, still walks the beat to this very day.
Here he is with his newest rookies, making rounds in the school and varied businesses, meeting merchants within the city limits comprising roughly 32,000 residents.
(Photo courtesy of the Norwood Police Department.)
It says something about a community whose top cop prefers meeting his constituents where they are, whether that be in shops and cafes or front porches or just crossing paths on sidewalks. Especially, though, are children seeing heroes among them in school environs, highlighted by students asking cops for autographs.
We can muse over what youngsters may think when they see a police officer out of the cruiser and walking a beat. I saw it all the time; their eyes scanning the duty belt, seemingly bedazzled by the iconic uniform hardware (badge, nameplate, whistle-chain, medals).
(Photo courtesy of the Norwood Police Department.)
Routinely, law enforcement agencies schedule formal visits of their own accord. Teachers and academic administrators also officially request cops to visit classes; normally that manifests in book-reading sessions. Like the Norwood police officers signing autographs for the kids, my department’s cops would read a book to a class of children and sign it, leaving it within the scope of the teachers.
Ordinarily, it seemed my police colleagues and I were largely reading to ourselves—the children are always magnetized by the accouterments described above. Lest we forget a tour of the police cruisers…
One of the annually attended events at schools, drawing large groups of cops at the head of the class, is the Great American Teach-In which transpires all over the nation. This particular event is planned, with rosters of police personnel (cops, dispatchers, crime lab scientists) putting on exhibits for children, showing and explaining the wares of the law enforcement profession. We can imagine the mere presence of police officers and cruisers at schools deterring/repelling miscreants.
The children are logically the most vulnerable, often preyed upon by today’s twisted demographic of malevolence seeking to steal innocence in atrocious ways. Indeed, we need cops in classes, in school hallways, and in the proximity of campuses where phantoms may lurk.
It was so bizarre when, in recency, we witnessed the chilling personas of some coldhearted “educators” in certain jurisdictions whose political ideologies trumpeted the idiocy of police-less schools. Some educational institutions narrow-mindedly followed through with those threats—the bark was loud for all to hear.
As I told ya so! goes, some of these anti-cop factions tacitly acknowledged the huge error of their ways, quietly re-inviting law enforcement officers back where they surely belong: Academic arenas.
Sometimes we encountered serious moments, with youngsters sharing unhappy times due to bullying or whatever is weighing on them.
Imagine the kids’ minds when they do not see their beloved police officers’ presence among them, whether at the school roundabouts where school busses drop off students or in the classrooms or campus playgrounds…
(Photo courtesy of the Norwood Police Department.)
As brusque as it may sound, it often seems the maturation of kids exceeds that of some chronological grown-ups. I suppose it stems from pure innocence and the natural need to know about heroic figures among them, like public safety-minded teachers who also embrace cops, happily having them in their respective classrooms.
Even though cops ordinarily have a notepad and pens to scribe details about unfortunate events visited upon victims of malicious criminals, it strikes a sentimental chord when children demonstrate the desire to possess a keepsake such as a police officer’s autograph.
Cops role-model for kids and vice-versa: the ostensibly unending guff LEOs endure from segments of society whose ideologies are nothing shy of radical and asinine…is offset by the organic interactions with youngsters who thankfully indicate they know better.
(Photo courtesy of the Norwood Police Department.)
Any of our nation’s police officers carrying the proverbial burdens placed upon them by naysayers and antithetical individuals denying the essential purpose of cops in public safety missions…can simply visit any of the schools in the area of responsibility…maybe with a brand-new pen and notebook.
Old-school Officer Friendly will always make a much better mark and resonate among children.