The Rocky Mount Police Department’s Pack A Patrol Car effort seeks to do more than ensure that children have supplies for the start of the upcoming school year.
Chief Robert Hassell, in a phone interview Wednesday, said that the department is seeking to build a relationship of trust between officers and children so that the children understand that officers are their friends.
Hassell said that, for him, many times the perception children have of the police is based on their lived experiences, as well as their interaction with the police and the interaction the child’s family member, loved one, neighbor or friend may have had with the police.
Hassell said that the police department has put a lot of emphasis on engaging with the community to ensure that whomever the department is engaging with, a different side of policing is seen.
“Yes, it’s important that we enforce the law,” Hassell said of officers arresting and getting criminal suspects off the streets. “But there’s also other parts of policing that we want to show our children and other citizens that make us human.”
Hassell emphasizes that he believes an effort such as packing patrol cars with school supplies is an opportunity for the police department to shape that perception closer to reality that those who wear the badge and those who provide administrative support to those who wear the badge are here to make the community safer.
“We’re here to do what we can to improve the quality of life — and we are here for everybody,” he said.
He made clear that he believes many of the children who receive school supplies already have a positive impression of the police.
“But if there is one that doesn’t have a positive impression or perception, hopefully we can work towards changing that,” he said.
Additionally, he said of providing school supplies, “It’s not sometimes what you say when you have an interaction with somebody. It’s not sometimes what you do when you interact with people. It’s how you make them feel.”
The Pack A Patrol Car effort started Monday at Sam’s Club off the Wesleyan Boulevard interchange for Sunset Avenue, at Walmart Supercenter at the Cobb Corners shopping center and at Roses off North Fairview Road.
Friday, July 26, is the last day to help out. The effort concludes at 6 p.m. at all three locations.
Donations also go to help schoolteachers who need to have school supplies in stock. Residents also can provide money as a donation in place of school supplies.
Hassell said that those who would like to drop off school supplies at the police department’s lobby for collecting as part of the Pack A Patrol Car effort can do so during normal business hours.
Police Cpl. T.M. Locke, who was at the Pack A Patrol location at Sam’s Wednesday afternoon, was upbeat.
“We are so honored for people to have the opportunity to be able to give in the economy that we have now and that they’re willing to give to make it happen” for children who need school supplies, Locke said.
Rocky Mount resident Luretta Belfield, who is the principal of Speight Middle School in Wilson County, donated money to help the cause while at Sam’s.
Belfield said Wednesday that she believes the Pack A Patrol car effort does help show that law enforcement are friends of the children.
“They support our system. They support education — and they support the progress and the progression of our children,” Belfield said.
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