The 11-year-old boy jumped in the air in partying after throwing a beanbag that hit a hole on the cornhole board.
His partner, a uniformed Columbus police officer, reached out a hand to poke him with a fist.
The moment symbolized the connections the Columbus Police Bike Officers in the city’s Safe Streets program wanted to make at their first summer block party on Friday night outside the new Linden Community Center. The event included food, games, a dip tank, and other fun activities.
Columbus policemen plan to “interact with the community”
“Interacting with the community” is the best part of what he does, Officer Nick Smith said after he and his young teammate finished their game on one of the game boards set up on the park’s basketball courts teeming with neighborhood kids.
“It’s nice to come to work and play cornhole with kids instead of driving around in a cruiser all day,” said Smith.
Jeremy Head said he has never teamed up with a cop.
“He was good,” said Jeremy. “We won.”
Jeremy’s mother, Tela Rics, appreciated that the police department and her Linden bike team were throwing a party for the neighborhood.
“It’s police officers who show the children that not all police officers are bad,” she said.
This is exactly what the community hopes The Starfish Assignment, which helps people in need by working with law enforcement agencies, sees. One of the nonprofit’s missions is to “educate the community that the overwhelming majority of civil servants go to work every day trying to make a difference”.
Two members of the Columbus Division of Police at the block party were such good sports that each took turns sitting on a dip tank and soaking. One of them, Deputy Chef Timothy Becker, did so in full uniform.
Use of bicycle officers on the streets of Linden to get in direct contact with the neighbors and to serve as problem solvers was the goal of the Safe Streets program when it launched in the summer of 2017.
“The idea wasn’t to reduce crime that much, but to get the community involved,” said deputy chief Jennifer Knight, who helped launch the program as commander. “When you get officers out of cruisers and put them on bicycles, they’re a lot more accessible.”
The Safe Streets program, which runs from spring through fall, has been expanded to include four teams, each composed of 10 officers and a sergeant, assigned to neighborhoods in four of the city’s five zones.
Officer Kevin Davis, a 10-year veteran, has been part of the Safe Streets team in Linden from the start.
“The congregation made us very welcome,” he said. “We get invited to a lot of neighborhood events, but we wanted to make some of our own.”
Some members of the Columbus Division of Fire also attended the Linden event, offered free CPR training, and competed against police in a basketball shooting competition.
Three more summer block parties are being hosted by the Columbus Police Department Safe Streets program at the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department community centers this month:
- July 16, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., Barack Community Center, 580 E. Woodrow Ave.
- July 23, 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., Far East Community Center, 1826 Lattimer Drive
- July 30, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Glenwood Community Center, 1888 Fairmont Ave.
@johnfutty
