By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
An annual event hosted by the St. Joseph Police Department will help show kids the importance of police officers and how they can help.
The Cops Who Care Kids Camp will be held July 17th through the 21st.
Interim Police Chief Dave Hart says the camp is a great opportunity for kids to build relationships with the city's officers
"The kids have an absolute blast, they do a bunch of sports, and on top of that they'll do demonstrations, when and how to call 9-1-1, fire safety, crime scene investigation, other educational programs, so we try to kind of mix it up," Hart tells host of the KFEQ Hotline Barry Birr. "It's for 9–13-year-old kids so if we did all educational it'd be lost on them."
Registration for the camp can be found at the Law Enforcement Center downtown or the St. Joseph Rec Center. Registration for the camp is open until June 1st.
Hart says the camp is very popular and even draws some kids back multiple times.
"We've had some repeats, they come back because they have such a good time, and it's just a good little bit of structure that's also focused on having fun, and it's been a good program for us," Hart says.
Hart says kids will do various sports activities and get the chance to learn about some of the day-to-day operations of a police officer during the camp.
Hart says the focus of the camp is to help humanize the badge and the position of a law enforcement officer.
"To make kids comfortable in talking with the police and try to break down any barriers that are there," Hart explains. "If you can interact with somebody as a person, that changes it."