On Saturday morning, dozens of Baltimore City police officers rounded up area youngsters at Dunbar High School, put them in squad cars and took them away – straight to a shopping center in Glen Burnie.
The kids took part in the 10th annual Baltimore City School Police Force's Shop With a Cop event, where law enforcement officers treat elementary and middle school students to a spending spree. Each child purchased items with $100 gift cards. The cards were donated by the Walmart Foundation, elected officials, city schools supporters and the officers — who are part of a unit assigned solely to city schools.
"This is a great time for the officers to mend with and develop quality relationships with the students within the school system that we don't normally encounter," said Marshall Goodwin, chief of city school police, who added that 141 officers are assigned to 80 city schools.
More than 70 children were treated to shopping sprees on Saturday, police said.
"This becomes a mentoring piece. We call our schools our community policing concept," Goodwin said.
The event has raised more than $54,000, police said.
Though Shop With a Cop is an annual event, this year it occurs amid tensions and standoffs between law enforcement and neighborhoods nationwide in the aftermath of grand jury decisions not to indict officers involved in deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City.
"I feel fortunate that I see another side of the police," said Vonda Thornton of Baltimore, "instead of when you see a bad side of them on the news. It's not all bad about them, and I like to see what they're doing with the youth."
Said Thornton's son, Micah Guess, 10, of the officers he encountered at the event, "They're funny and they make sure you have a smile on your face."
"This shows that we're not to be feared," said Baltimore City Officer Michael Johnson. "All cops are not bad. The way I approach my policing is that I respect you as a man first, and then we get into the other things. [Even] if you're doing something wrong, respect is going to come first."
Police officials said students were chosen for the event based on household economic hardship, and each was selected by school principals.
The event began with breakfast at Dunbar High donated by McDonald's, and afterward students boarded squad cars that staged a motorcade – with lights flashing, sirens blaring and traffic stoppages throughout the city – en route to the Glen Burnie Walmart Supercenter.
Most of the youngsters gravitated toward bicycles while other filled shopping carts with Barbie dolls, action figures, accessories and gadgets. The students returned to Dunbar High via motorcade for lunch.
Chandler Johnson, 11, of Baltimore took part in the program for the second consecutive year. She said last year she came away with Barbie dolls but this year she went in search of craft-making sets.
"Today is a blessing," Marilyn Johnson, Chandler's mother, "for children here whose parents might be facing financial hardships. I would like to see this continue to happen."
Also taking part in the event was Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Gregory Thornton, who said that he often asks young people what they aspire to be when they grow up, and he added, "A lot of the kids say, 'I want to be a police officer.'
"Kids look at what investments are made in them," Thornton added, "and this is hopefully a major down payment to hopefully get them in a good direction where they become part of a community where police are a vital part."
Glen Burnie Walmart Supercenter store manager Charles Plisco, whose store hosts the event each year, said it was one of the rare times when such a sizable number of law enforcement officers were present. "This is the one morning," said Plisco, "when nobody's in here doing what they're not supposed to do."