Lake City Police Department treats area residents

By: Adrel Langley/Lake City News & Post | SCNow
Published: November 06, 2007

Every Halloween for the past four years or so, Lake City Police officers have made a special effort to show area children that the police don’t only show up when something bad happens.

This past Wednesday, the department put on its annual Trick-or-Treat event at the Lake City Police Department substation on Spruce Street.

As ghosts, goblins, pirates, princesses, skeletons and other ghouls made their way through the substation with bags and buckets to collect candy, the officers seemed to be having as much fun as the youngsters.

A huge blow-up ghost waved to guests in front of the building as jack-o'-lanterns, strobe lights and Halloween garland greeted visitors inside.

“It was great,” Lake City Police Department Lt. Joseph “Jody” Cooper, one of the officers who organized the event said. “We had a good turnout.”

In fact, Lake City Police Chief Billy Brown said this is the year was the best turnout the event has ever had.

Though no one had an official count of how many people participated in the event, of the 400 hotdogs purchased, only about 20 remained when all the witches and warlocks had been fed.

“It was nice to be able to feed the kids and show them the softer side of police,” Cooper said, explaining that the best part of volunteering his time was seeing all the costumes.

Cooper also explained that there is an ulterior motive to events such as these.

“These little kids grow up to be big kids,” Cooper said, explaining that building a good relationship with people may help deter crime in the future.

Most of these children never get to meet a police officer unless an officer is called to their home or some other unfortunate event takes place, Brown explained.

“We want to do something positive that they will enjoy,” he said.

“Giving back to the community is important in letting them know that we are willing to work with them and trying to improve their quality of life,” Cooper said.

Though Brown and Cooper did the majority of organizing the event, other officers also volunteered their time and Ronnie Poston with the Lake City Housing Authority also helped, according to Brown.

Brown went on to say that in his 30 years with the department, this was the quietest Halloween he has experienced.

“We had no reports of malicious damage to property,” Brown said.

“I couldn’t believe that we didn’t take the first report,” he added.

Lake City Police Department treats area residents

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