Kia Barrett’s 7-year-old daughter points at a shirt on the rack. “It says Blessed and we are blessed aren’t we?” This is the Barretts’ second time at Shop with a Cop, and this year they are able to buy $150 of clothes and toys just before the Christmas season.
Barrett said her daughter was looking for a new raincoat, a guitar for her in her free time, and some other clothes. But her daughter wagered that she wanted some new shoes.
When they shop with the cop, Barrett knows that the service doesn’t come out of obligation, but rather out of the heart.
Barrett said her daughter really wanted a jack-in-the-box last year but they weren’t able to find one. The cop they shopped with searched for hours with them. After they weren’t able to find it, the cop found one days later, wrapped the toy, and gifted it to Barrett’s daughter.
“She still plays with that jack-in-the-box. So that means that it’s not just out of personal gain. It’s from the heart. I know they don’t have to do this and it shows me what kind of people we have in our community,” she said.
Shop with a Cop this year had 112 kids participate, which is slightly higher than usual according to Sergeant Loren Yonts.
“It’s been something for us to tackle this year with a higher amount of requests coming in, and I’m sure the economy has a little bit to do with that, so we’re happy that we can do this again,” he said.
Yonts said it’s important to the officers to help the community beyond their daily duties, and they hope to show that police officers are approachable.
The officers’ spouses or partners often come shop with them so the trip becomes two families shopping together to help bring a good Christmas to the other.
“We want to make sure that they don’t see us just as a person that’s in law enforcement, but we’re humans. We’ve got spouses, we’ve got boyfriends/girlfriends, and they’re a part of us. We’re just their parents, so it shows them that we’re not really that much different,” Yonts said.
Barrett said it helps her daughter learn that lesson, and she appreciates that they shop in their uniform to help really complete the thought.
“I try to instill in her that everybody is not what they wear, everybody’s not how they pretend to be. So, officers, we love them, we love everybody,” Barrett said.
This year marks Yonts’ 20th year helping with the Shop with a Cop and 10th organizing it.
“It hits me in the heart because you see the gratitude, they really appreciate the fact that we can help them out and they see it as a fun night,” he said. “To really know you have that impact long-term is something. I’m not doing it for now; I’m doing it for the next 5 or 10 years of hopefully positive relationships.”
