(This article first appeared in the September print edition of the Hendersonian.)
In 2013, three Evansville police officers agreed to chaperone a group of middle school students on a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.
That one journey ignited an idea that became Cops Connecting with Kids – a program which after gaining its footing in Evansville – traveled across the river and was adopted by the Henderson Police Department in 2018.
“Glenwood Leadership Academy (in Evansville) invited me to go on a trip they were doing with grant funds, and then asked if we had any other male chaperones,” said Henderson Police Chief Billy Bolin, then with EPD. “Officers Jason Cullum and Phil Smith also volunteered.”
“It was as much a game changer for us as it was for the kids,” Bolin said. “It was a one-time thing for the schools, but on the bus ride home, Jason Cullum asked me what I thought about us raising the money and organizing a trip. This was how it began. CCK has taken 702 kids” from Henderson, Evansville and Princeton, Ind.
Phil Smith – now the chief of the Evansville Police Department – told the Hendersonian that when he volunteered for the trip, he thought it would be a one-and-
done excursion.
“I didn’t know it would become a program until I attended,” he said. “My previous job was with the school corporation, so I was in my element as far as being with young people.
“What I immediately realized is that I was now a police officer, and that’s how those kids saw me, despite only being less than a year removed from the same corporation.”
He said there wasn’t a particular moment that brought him to being fully invested in an initiative like this. Instead, he said it was a gradual change in the relationship between the officers and young people.
“It was noticing barriers coming down,” he said. “At first the kids didn’t talk to us. And we were amongst ourselves as well. But as the trip progressed, we’d engage with each other more. And then the kids would ask to ride rides with us. Then they’d ask questions about us and tell us stories about them. It was very emotional.”
After that first trip, the program developed rapidly.
“We were chaperones in 2013 with Glenwood Leadership Academy. And in 2014, we went on the first trip that we fundraised for. In 2015, Officer Jason Cullum came up with the moniker ‘Cops Connecting with Kids,’” Smith said.
Three years later, Bolin, who was then the chief of the Evansville Police Department, and Cullum extended an invitation to HPD to begin a local CCK program.
HPD Lt. Daniel Lehman was one of the chaperones on the Henderson department’s first trip to Disney in May 2019.
“We have sponsored students from each school year since (2019),” Lehman said, adding that 64 students so far – all selected from North and South middle schools – have experienced Disney World with law enforcement chaperones.
“I have always been community oriented and loved the idea behind this program,” Lehman said. “Seeing Evansville police take this idea and make it happen was cool to witness, and therefore joining them was an obvious yes.”
Bolin said the heart of the program is in the name.
“It is truly what we named it to be,” he said. “We saw the negativity in the community toward law enforcement, and we wanted to try to connect with kids, especially those in areas where we have to do a lot of enforcement.”
“From a cop’s perspective,” Smith said, “especially one that patrols, a trip like this adds to the empathy you should already have being in the profession.
“Sometimes we can get so caught up in the job that we take for granted just how impactful our job is beyond getting the bad guys,” he said. “The job is getting the bad guy, but it’s also establishing relationships and trust. It teaches you that getting the bad guy impacts families. Victims should get justice and the offenders should have consequences.
“However, we can forget that offenders have families affected by that person’s actions as well,” Smith said. “We’ve worked with kids whose loved ones we had to arrest. Having those conversations about why we had to do that in a setting like the Cops Connecting with Kids trips, creates a dialogue and gives the kids a perspective they may not have had. It also gives the officer a perspective that they may not have thought of beforehand.”
Bolin said law enforcement chaperones still hear from some of the young people who have gone on the trips over the years.
“We have had so many kids go now that we have frequent interactions with them. The ones who want to stay connected are obviously more frequent.”
Bolin said he recently spoke to one of those young people who wants to become a police officer.
“He decided not to go to college, but told us he wanted to be a police officer. We introduced him to Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson, who hired him as a deputy jailer straight out of high school. He is now 22. I texted him (recently) to see if he had applied to be a police officer yet. He told me he is afraid to fail as an officer. I sent him a screenshot I just took a few weeks ago that says, ‘Those who fail can rise again, but those who never try remain exactly where they started.’ He texted me back and said, ‘Damn man. Thanks a lot.’”
Bolin said he is continuing to encourage this young man to set aside his fears and pursue law enforcement.
“We didn’t see (Cops Connecting with Kids) as a recruitment tool in the beginning, but we do now,” Bolin said. “HPD Officer Luscius Lloyd is one of three that has gone into law enforcement. I knew when we hired him that he wanted to be an Evansville officer, but I had hoped we would get him hooked and convince him to stay.
“Regardless, I’m proud to have seen the growth in him from a middle school kid to what he has become today.”
The Cops Connecting with Kids trip, Bolin said, “has been the most rewarding part of my career.”
Lehman said the program has meant as much to him as he believes it has for the students chosen.
“Having the honor of participating on the first trip with HPD, I was completely invested,” he said. “Getting to see the students experience flying and Disney World for the first time is a great bonding experience with them.
“We get the opportunity to learn about them, mentor them, and reward them with this trip for being such good students and members of the community,” he said. “I really enjoy seeing the students try various foods for the first time while we are at the parks, as well as seeing the friends they make with other students on the trip.”
Smith said he recently received a letter from a student who was chosen for the trip in 2019.
Now a senior at North High School in Evansville, the student wrote, “I just want to thank you so much for this incredible program … This experience taught me to look forward in life, and that there is so much magic to explore in the world. After six years of this experience, I will never forget it, and will continue to cherish it.”
