The Rifle Police Department will hold its annual Shop with a Cop event this year on Saturday, December 10. This annual event helps build positive relationships between young children, their families and law enforcement. This time-honored tradition helps ensure families have a special holiday season complete with gifts, fun memories and new friends.
Rifle’s School Resource Officer, Josh Allison, works with Elementary School Principals and 5th grade teachers to identify children who would benefit from the Shop with a Cop program. Once those children are identified, Officer Allison reaches out the parents to educate them on the program and see if they would be interested in participating. Once he received permission from the parent/guardian the child is signed up for the program.
The service provided to children is not only that of satisfying material needs, but to additionally serve them by providing a positive experience with law enforcement officers and the law enforcement community. Some children identified through this program have negative memories of law enforcement officers. Left untended, these negative feelings and emotions could carry into the teenage years and adulthood. By serving these children in uniform, the officers hope to enforce a different image for them to hold onto - an image of trustworthy, caring men and women who are there to help and assist them with whatever needs they have.
The Rifle Police Department would like to thank our generous sponsors Alpine Bank, BPOE 2195 Rifle Elk’s Lodge, Holy Cross Energy, Walker Electric and Walmart for helping make this event possible. For more information please reach out to Angela Mills, amills@rifleco.org