Deputies Help Dispel Fears of Children

Duty calls on Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Price to be a celebrity only once a year. If that means elementary school students get to romp through his patrol car, push all the buttons on his radio and lock his doors, so be it.

Price says he doesn’t mind because Sheriff’s Day for students at Bellflower’s Pace Elementary and an adjacent county-run school for disabled children teaches kids not to fear law-enforcement officials.

Signing autographs Tuesday on the lawn of Thompson Park, Price told the story of a 22-year-old autistic woman discovered wandering the streets of Artesia two years ago, ignoring everyone who approached her. But when a patrol car pulled up, she hopped right in.

“Word got back to us that she’d been exposed to some gathering like this,” Price said.

It also works the other way around, said reserve Capt. Jeffry R. Heller, who conceived and organized the first Sheriff’s Day 15 years ago. Not only are physically and mentally disabled children introduced to several special-assignment deputies, he said, but the deputies get to observe various disabilities that might be mistaken for dangerous behavior.

Gathered for the fair-like event were deputies and their equipment from the mounted posse of the Sheriff’s Department, the canine unit, bomb squad and search-and-rescue team.