Community events unify police, residents

Aug. 3—Howard County Sheriff's Office Deputy Kenny Parson stepped up to the plate, drew his foot back and kicked the green ball high into the air.

Cheers and squeals ensued from the crowd of children standing nearby as Parson ran around the bases and scored a home run for his team.

A few feet away, Kokomo Police Department Chief Doug Stout stood along the third base line and took in all the excitement, three young children flanked around him, trying to climb onto his back or sit on his knee.

Those were just a couple of the scenes at Studebaker Park Monday evening at Kickball with the Law, an event organized by Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church staff in partnership with local law enforcement and the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library.

"The effort is always to be proactive and intentional with the relationship between law enforcement and community," Mt. Pisgah Pastor Lonnie Anderson Jr. told the Tribune prior to the event. "I think that's the key word. Being proactive, as well as intentional, about establishing relationships."

Due to the COVID pandemic, this is the first Kickball with the Law event since 2019, and Mt. Pisgah Youth Pastor Alfonso Carter said organizers wanted to make sure this year was even bigger and better than before.

Along with a kickball game with members of KPD and the HCSO, library officials were also on hand to hand out free books and sign children up for library cards, and there were also free school supply giveaways and tutoring resources.

"This is a reflection of a community that still cares about our youth," Carter said of Monday's event. "For a pastor, a mayor and city officials, churches to come together and say that we need to do something for our youth to ensure that we not only love them but also have their back, it's phenomenal."

Carter went on to say that he was in programs as a kid that helped him interact with police in a positive way, and he hoped that children that participated in Monday's Kickball with the Law left with the same feelings toward law enforcement.

"I grew up in a school seeing police in my school, not because somebody was in trouble, but because they just wanted to stop in and say hello," Carter noted. "They (law enforcement) would come to my house and pick me up at eight in the morning, not to take me to jail, but to take me to summer camp. I grew up around police, not just as public figures, but as family. So, it's important for these kids to see police, not just as a badge, but also just police officers in basketball shorts having fun."

HCSO Maj. Gary Cook and KPD Maj. Brian Seldon both agreed with Carter, adding that events like Monday's Kickball with the Law provided opportunities to keep strengthening the relationship and ongoing dialogue between police and community members.

"This only helps bridge the gap," Cook said. "These are the small building blocks of a foundation that we progressively want to get to. As law enforcement, we are extremely blessed to have the community that we have and are surrounded by. I know there are ups and downs, but this right here is what it's all about. You really can't put a value on something like this."

For Seldon, who spent most of the evening high-fiving children while wearing a backwards hat and gym clothes, Kickball With the Law was also about normalizing law enforcement officers.

"The value of all of this is that we are out here with the kids, getting them to trust the police at a young age," he said. "With everything going on with this nation, there's sometimes a lack of trust with law enforcement. And that lack of trust sometimes hampers us with investigations or even just the community effort that we put into cases. So seeing something like this event, this helps build and strengthen that trust."

And Kickball with the Law wasn't the only relationship-building event law enforcement and community leaders participated in this week with the public.

National Night Out

Indiana University Police Department-Kokomo Officer Kevin Summers playfully teased a group of kids who were standing a few feet in front of him Tuesday evening at Taylor Elementary School.

"You can't get me wet," Summers laughed, sitting confidently atop a dunk tank.

A short time later, a little girl threw a baseball onto a button that sent Summers tumbling down into the water below, a smile creeping across his face when he came back up.

It was all a part of Kokomo's National Night Out, a crime and drug prevention event and initiative.

National Night Out began in 1984 with an emphasis on generating community support in anti-crime efforts and strengthening relations between community members and law enforcement.

This year's events were held Tuesday at Foster Park, Garden Square Apartments and Taylor Elementary School, where police officers and residents did everything from eat hot dogs to play hopscotch together.

"I've just really had an emphasis on community engagement," IUPD-Kokomo Chief Thomas Remender told the Tribune. "And I believe the way that you do that is through relationships. I have a background in counseling, working with at-risk youth in central Indiana. So, you have to build relationships with people. And with a relationship comes trust and transparency. I think one of the things that has hurt us (police) is that we haven't always been so transparent.

"We aren't always willing to put out there when we do good and when we do bad," Remender added. "I think it's both. We have to really highlight the good but also have to be honest about our failures and mistakes and make a commitment to change that. And I think that comes about by involving yourself in the community through things like this."

But building those relationships and that trust doesn't just happen overnight either.

It's an ongoing dialogue, IUPD Public Information Officer Hannah Skibba said.

"It's so important to get out in the community and have the community learn a little bit more about us," she said. "But more importantly, it's about us learning about the community we serve. We are campus focused, but we're not campus exclusive. We need to get out to these elementary schools and interact with our youngest citizens in the community, and we need to do that often. It doesn't just stop tonight."