WACO, Texas — The Waco Police Department hosted the Community Opportunity Event (COE) on Saturday at the Dewey Community Center.
It was a day full of smiles and excitement as children from all ages gathered to visit with multiple law enforcement agencies.
The COE aimed to guide people to success by addressing the root causes of teen gun violence through community resources and healthy life choices, creating safer and more positive environments.
Officers had the chance to show people the heart behind the uniforms and badges at the event.
"It’s really important to try and interact with the community in a non-enforcement fashion," Waco PD Sergeant Timothy Barrett said. "Most people are so used to seeing police on a traffic stop or a call for service. I think it’s really great that they can see us and we can interact with them in a way that’s just totally wide open and a little bit more human.”
Waco Police say the high crime and violence in young adults and kids is what sparked the event.
"We started looking at it going door to door, going to schools, asking people, what is it that we can do as a department to try to get ahead of that to keep these types of things from happening," Waco PD Detective Eric Hawkins said. "We're here to offer our young people, job opportunities, educational materials, things that's going to help them during the summer to stay out of trouble trouble, to have something to do to keep them occupied.
Waco Police hope to continue the event in years to come and hopes this helps place children on a better path in life.