Shop with a Cop bridges gap between police and kids at Zanesville Walmart

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Police cruisers and other vehicles surrounded Walmart Monday night for the annual Shop with a Cop event.

Kids, parents and officers had the chance to look for toys and clothes for each child to bring home.

President of the Fraternal Order of Police Jim Hicks says kids are chosen by agencies and some officers find kids who need things while they’re on patrol.

“We put cops and kids together and needy kids. We get kids from agencies — the schools and officers when they’re out on patrol and see kids that need help and at Christmastime we bring them in, buy them clothes — warm clothes and toys. Make their Christmas a little brighter.”

Sheriff Matt Lutz took Owen Miller through the store looking for presents to bring home. Lutz says events like this help officers do something positive for their community.

“From our standpoint — we’re — it helps kind of bridge that gap that we don’t get to talk to people usually always in a negative way because we’re there to handle some type of problem or issue. So for our guys that come up here — we have a lot of deputies there’s a lot of the Zanesville Police Department officers up here and they get to interact in a positive way.”

Wilson says the event was fun and helped him see officers in a new perspective.

Show with a Cop is a national event.