More Wonderful Ways that Monmouth County Cops Care

We love when the Monmouth County Prosecutor stops by to chat and tells us all about the great things that the police in our community are doing.

First of all, there's  "Coffee with the Prosecutor and Cops" events that take place throughout our county which are a fabulous way to hang out, chat, have free coffee and ask questions of your local police officers and get to know the prosecutor (In case you missed the live invite on the air, there is one this morning, Nov. 8th,  from 10 am - 11:30 am at the Corner Cafe on Centennial Drive  in Long Branch).

In addition to inviting you for free coffee this morning, Christopher Gramiccioni came on our show to tell us about a special new program that has begun as a way to keep kids from being scared in a situation where the police are called to their house, or if the kids are brought into the police station along with a parent/caregiver seeking assistance.

This new program is a new and unique way for police officers to help kids who are caught in the middle and may not understand what's going on and why there are strangers in uniforms or lights flashing or people upset surrounding them. I mean, just imagine the poor kid who wakes up when he hears sirens and then sees strangers in the house perhaps trying to revive a parent who has overdosed. The poor child -- experiencing fear that he or she can't process and an officer not knowing how to comfort/distract/help that little one.

But now with the launch of this new program, police officers have something tangible to give the children who are, for whatever reason, the innocent bystanders to a police response.

Cops are now carrying around nylon drawstring bags filled with teddy bears, coloring books/crayons, stress balls and water bottles.

5,000 of those bags for the kids have been distributed to all of our Monmouth County police departments for use both in the agencies and for patrol officers to keep in their patrol vehicles.

The idea is that whenever an officer encounters a kid caught in the middle of some type of police response, call for service, or for kids who are brought to a police department for whatever reason, there will be something that officers already have on hand for those kids so that they won't be as scared and they will have something that is just for them that includes an activity they can do.

The bags and contents were paid for by victim witness grant funding.

For more info, CLICK HERE.