Columbus police throwing summer block parties as part of mission to connect with community
By John Futty, The Columbus Dispatch, July 9, 2021
Photo: Miairiah Mitchell, 7, reacts to dunking Columbus police officer Shawn Lutz during a summer block party Friday hosted by the bicycle officers of the police division's Safe Streets program at the Linden Community Center.
The 11-year-old boy leaped in the air in celebration after tossing a beanbag that bounced into a hole on the cornhole board.
His partner, a uniformed Columbus police officer, reaching out to offer him a fist bump.
The moment symbolized the connections that Columbus police bicycle officers in the city's Safe Streets program were hoping to achieve in their first summer block party Friday evening outside the new Linden Community Center. The event featured food, games, a dunk tank and other fun activities.
Columbus cops' plans to 'interact with the community'
"Getting to interact with the community" is the best part of his job, Officer Nick Smith said after he and his young teammate finished their match on one of the gameboards set up on the park's basketball courts, which were teeming with neighborhood kids.
"It's nice to come to work and play cornhole with kids as opposed to driving a cruiser around all day," Smith said.
Jeremy Head said he had never teamed up with a police officer before.
"He was good," Jeremy said. "We won."
Jeremy's mother, Tela Rics, appreciated that the police division and its Linden bike team were throwing a party for the neighborhood.
"It's officers showing the kids that not all cops are bad," she said.
That's exactly what The Starfish Assignment, which works to help people in need by partnering with law enforcement officers, hopes the community sees. One of the nonprofit's missions is to "help educate the community that the overwhelming majority of officers go to work every day to try to make a difference."
Two members of the Columbus Division of Police at the block party were such good sports that each took a turn sitting atop a dunk tank and got a soaking. One of them, Deputy Chief Timothy Becker, did so in full uniform.
Placing bicycle officers on the streets of Linden to connect directly with neighbors and serve as problem-solvers was the goal of the Safe Streets program when it was launched in summer 2017.
"The idea wasn't to drive crime down as much as it was to engage with the community," said Deputy Chief Jennifer Knight, who helped launch the program as a commander. "When you take officers out of cruisers and put them on bikes, they are a lot more approachable."
The Safe Streets program, which runs from the spring to the fall, has expanded to four teams, each consisting of 10 officers and a sergeant, assigned to neighborhoods in four of the city's five zones.
Officer Kevin Davis, a 10-year veteran of the force, has been a part of the Safe Streets team in Linden since it began.
"The community has welcomed us so much," he said. "We get invited to a lot of neighborhood events, but we wanted to do some of our own."
Some Columbus Division of Fire members also participated in the Linden event, providing free CPR training and competing against police in a basketball shooting contest.