On Halloween afternoon, on Main Street, a Park City Police Officer exemplified what we wish all encounters with our local law enforcement were like.

My 2 1/2 year old son was fixated on the police and sheriff’s vehicles’ flashing lights. He wanted to touch every vehicle. When we came upon this one  officer’s vehicle and asked permission to touch it, he asked if my son wanted “a police badge”. My son shook his head like he had never been as excited. The officer pulled the sticker off and handed it to my son.

What happened next surprised me. The officer looked at my son and said “You want to sit inside my vehicle?” We didn’t end up taking him up on his kind offer but it made our day. This is the sort of interaction that we hope for when encountering law enforcement in every day situations, and for my son it starts teaching the lesson that the police are our friends and not something to be scared of.

It was one, simple act of kindness, and it made all the difference.