Connecting with kids
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Submitted Photo
A REFRESHING DRINK — Officer Brandon Kreke from the Salem Police Department gave juice boxes to local youths Everett and Roper after spotting them in Salem recently.
Submitted Photo
READY FOR SCHOOL — Deputy Chief Tyler Rose with the Salem Police Department spotted a local youngster waiting to head off to preschool during a recent morning and gave him a Kool-Aid Jammers drink as part of Operation Juice Box.
SALEM — Officers from the Salem Police Department have been taking some time out of their regular patrols around the community to stop and visit with local kids and hand out some treats.
In cooperation with Operation Juice Juice Box, the local police officers have been handing out the drinks to youngsters that they spot while out and about around Salem.
Salem Deputy Chief Tyler Rose noted that one of the department’s officers, Salem Elementary School Resource Officer Mason McMeen, brought up the idea of teaming up with the Operation Juice Box organization, which provided a number of cases of the drinks for the officers to give out.
Rose explained that Operation Juice Box is a California-based organization that was started in 2016.
“Their mission is to promote positive interactions between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” said Rose.
According to information on the Operation Juice Box website, the organization provides free juice boxes and other non-perishable goods, such as crayons and coloring books, to law enforcement personnel which they, in turn, give to the public, with an emphasis on giving them to children.
“The goal is to break down barriers, develop relationships and instill a positive image of law enforcement in the minds of our youth,” the website states.
Rose noted that the Salem department received a shipment of juice boxes in late August and has already handed out several to youths in the community.
“We’ve done some programs like this in the past … we get donated toys and we hand those out to smaller children,” Rose explained. “With this program, usually whenever we see kids while out on patrol, we will sometimes stop and talk to them and give them the juice boxes. We also give them an opportunity to look inside the squad car … it’s a good opportunity to show them how everything works.”
“It gives the officers a one-on-one interaction with the kids, and they get to answer the kids’ questions about what police officers do,” Rose added.
He added that in addition to those types of casual interactions, the juice boxes could also be given out when officers respond to a call that involves a child.
“If we end up having to bring a child back to the PD, we do have donated toys, and now the juice boxes, that we can give to the kids while they are in our care,” he said.
Rose noted that the Salem department is happy to be working with Operation Juice Box, and whenever an officer has an interaction with a kid and gives out a juice box, the department shares a photo on the Salem PD Facebook page. Those photos are also shared with the Operation Juice Box organization on their Facebook page.
“This is a great opportunity to have an impact on the kids in our community … The hope of this program is to make officers more approachable and more relatable to the kids,” said Rose.
