Hibbing Police Helping Children With New Program
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HIBBING- Police in Hibbing, frustrated with how traumatizing some police situations can be for children, are trying something new.
They have decided to give children some comforting items to help them during distressing situations.
Police say it can be heartbreaking to see how little children are affected in these situations, so they wanted to do something about it.
At least once a month, DARE Officer Kris Halverson says the Hibbing Police either pick up a child, or a child is involved in a situation where they are held at the station, and he said it can even be more frequent in the summer.
Halverson says he felt bad about the way things were and he wanted to help those children while they were going through a traumatic situation.
Halverson said, "some of these children aren't even old enough to really know what's going on or where they are. It's just a bunch of strange people around and their mom or dad might be in hand cuffs and they are quite frightened."
Halverson has used some of the funds from the DARE program to create bags to give to the children when they are at the station or when they are picked up.
The bags have crayons and a coloring book, a teddy bear and stickers. The children get to keep the bags, but right now there are only 10 so the Hibbing Police department needs the public's help.
The police are asking for new children's items and people can drop them right off at the station.
They say they really want to be able to keep the program going because as frequently as they've been seeing children, the bags they have won't last long.