Police Reach Out to Kids at Annual Block Party

Gunfire pierced the air. The Old West sheriff’s daughter fell first. Minutes later, her villainous attackers were shot one by one as a posse of deputies in the old cowboy town sought justice.

The play, one of many ways Ventura police officials turned safety lessons into fun at their fifth annual block party Saturday, drove home its message loud and clear.

“Guns kill people,” 4-year-old Courtney Gause of Ventura said tearfully as she clasped her hands over her ears and pressed her face into her father’s shoulder.

But as Courtney hid, other children dubbed the “gunfight” the “coolest” of the exhibits from various law enforcement and rescue groups that surrounded the Ventura Police Department headquarters along with food and game booths.

“Nice aim,” screamed 5-year-old Evan Warren of Ventura as an actor shot a balloon.

Nearby, kids petted police dogs, practiced calling 911, watched dummies without seat belts crash through car windshields in simulated collisions, and pretended they were officers driving ambulances, police cruisers, highway patrol motorcycles and sheriff’s helicopters.

After trying his hand at “steering” the helicopter, 6-year-old Alex Fletcher of Ventura gave up his ambition of becoming a firefighter.

“This is cooler,” he said. “I want to be one of the guys that flies.”

At another popular exhibit, children clamored to get collectible cards bearing the likenesses not of baseball heroes, but of officers from K-9 units posing with their dogs.

“These are going like gangbusters,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Rivas. “The idea is to break the ice between kids and cops.”

Consider it broken. Petting the dogs was second only to collecting all nine cards from the Ventura police and county sheriff’s departments.

“We are collecting them because we think it’s neat,” said 6-year-old Sekoya Hibbard of Ventura. She already had five of the set.

About 17,000 residents attended the daylong event, said Laura Robinson, a crime prevention officer.

Timed this year to coincide with National Crime Prevention Month and Police Officer Memorial Week, the block party was created to bring residents--especially children--closer to the officers charged with protecting them, she said.

“We don’t want to be some big mystical house on the hill that is not approachable or part of the community,” she said. “We are the community.”