Gulfport Police Department hosted an event to bond with community members

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - Gulfport Police Department hosted a “Police in the Park” event at East North Park in Gulfport.

Community members got a chance to interact with police officers during the event. Patrol Officer Hannah Hendry said it is important for people to see officers outside their line of work.

“Most of the time when we see people it is on a bad day for them, so coming out in an environment like this and having fun and then they get to see us be human and join them in their community,” Hendry said.

This isn’t the first time the department has set up a meet and greet event, and they plan to keep hosting monthly events.

During the event, officers served snow cones, hot dogs, and bonded with children by playing games with them.

“We love it. I get to come out here and feel like a kid myself, so we get to do the monkey bars, the slides and stuff like that,” Hendry said.

This is one of the first community events that Adam Cooper attended as the new Chief of Police. He said it feels great bonding with the community that watched him grow.

“I graduated Gulfport High in 1989 and lived here most of my life and this is where I was raised, I love Gulfport,” Cooper said.

Chief Cooper also let us in on some insight on how Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, “Gulf Coast Safety Initiative” will impact the city of Gulfport.

“We are running some operations with local agencies as well as federal and state agencies in recent months,” Cooper said. “We had some really good cooperation with the county as well as the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and DEA, and we just finished up another street operation that seized a number of illegal guns off the streets.”

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