By Mark Reynolds
Last Friday evening the Lloyd Police Department hosted their first ‘Cops & Cones’ event at the Frozen Caboose on Haviland Road. Free ice cream cones were handed out to children age 10 and under.
Chief James Janso said for years his department has done a lot to reach out to the Highland Community.
“We figured it was the fall season and a nice time for an ice cream cone and to get the kids out of the house and meet us,” he said. “They get the chance to take a tour of a police car and our ATV and we hand out the child ID kits to the Moms and Dads for safety and some stickers and the kids get an ice cream card and go inside for free ice cream. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Janso said these kinds of events have a lasting positive impact.
“I think it’s important to reach out to our community and our youth. We want them to know who we are and not be afraid of us and when they do interact with us or have to call us, they are comfortable calling us.”
Janso said these events also allow parents to get to know his officers and the department.
“We want people to understand that it’s our job but that we also do some fun stuff like this for the kids,” he said. “We do more and more stuff each year and we try to do something different and think outside the box,” he said.
Janso has his newer officers, “come on board at events because they will be the ones to carry them on. It’s very important to have your community support you, especially in today’s world because that’s who we work for.”
Janso said many people’s only interaction with the town police is when they get pulled over for a vehicle traffic violation, “but that’s only about 1% of what we do. I want people to understand that we do good things too for the community, we want to get involved with them, playing kick ball with the kids and events like this to get them to come out and see us. Hopefully, maybe later in life, they become Lloyd Police officers coming our way.”
Frozen Caboose owner Jo Burruby said they decided to have a night at her shop so parents get a child ID and the kids could check out the police vehicles.
“The police like our place and we have a good working relationship with them,” she added.
Burruby is a retired Highland Middle School principal, and together with Barbara Lemister, they run the Frozen Caboose from mid March to the end of October.
“We decided to do this and we do it seven months and we have five off,” she said, adding there is a place they have down south in the sun.
Burruby said when she retired she worried that she would miss the kids, “and this place has definitely fulfilled that.” There is also a Caboose on the Loose Ice Cream Truck that travels to events in the area.