CORRECTION: A quote was corrected after a transcription error was identified. Elon News Network regrets this error.
For the second year in a row, Alamance County Sheriff's Office filled its parking lot with car’s trunks decked out in Halloween decorations and hosted its annual trunk or treat community outreach event Oct. 30. The event attracted around 500 attendees including families, friends and residents of Alamance County to come with their kids and get to know their county’s law enforcement.
Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson said the biggest drive to host the event was the shared desire to create a safe space for the children to celebrate Halloween in their community.
“Right now, I think our society is a very dangerous place for our children, so we talked and decided we would host a trunk or treat in our own parking lot,” Johnson said. “Parents could come with their children, it’d be a nice community event, and we could keep the children safe.”
With the parking lot surrounded by law enforcement from the Sheriff’s Office, both on-duty and in costumes of their own, safety remained the top priority. Officers handed out candy and chatted with families — taking advantage of the opportunity to meet and interact with each other in a relaxed atmosphere.
For Johnson and his team, that connection is what the event is all about: strengthening and building relationships between law enforcement and the community they serve.
Public Information Officer Byron Tucker, said he wants children not to be afraid of police officers.
“We want them to know that, no matter who you are, where you're calling from, whatever your background is — you call for help, we're there,” Tucker said.
Captain of Personnel Mantrese Dodson organized the event. Dodson said her goal to strengthen these relationships is what makes events like this mean so much to the community.
“It gives them an opportunity to see us,” Dodson said. “A lot of times when we get calls for service, they see us in work mode, but here they get to interact with the sheriff, the chief, the administration, and the staff to see us in a normal setting just having fun.”
Johnson said this informal connection helps to humanize law enforcement, and reminds citizens that their officers are neighbors, parents and friends too.
“By putting on a function like this, there's several things that I think we gain. One is the safety of our kids and the safety of all the people here. The second is to help build a bridge, showing that we care about the citizens and the children here in Alamance County,” Johnson said.
With more than 31,000 candy donations from families and businesses, the community donated all of the candy for the event in the span of a month. Alamance County firefighters, rescue squads, as well as local businesses came to hand out candy to support the event. Alamance County Emergency Medical Services even decorated their ambulance, putting a festive skeleton in it and allowing kids to learn about what they do in a safe and fun environment.
Looking to the future of the annual trunk or treating event, Dodson said the department hopes to continue to grow the event, creating a safe space to build community in Alamance County.
“As long as I wear that badge, it will be done yearly,” Johnson said.
For the Sheriff's Office, the event is more than just once-a-year community outreach. They work with Student Resource Officers in schools to deliver food to families that need it during Christmas and Thanksgiving, they hold a Citizen’s Academy where people can come and learn about the behind-the-scenes of the office, and deliver hand-cut wood to a family who needed it to heat their home.
Contributing to the community is a quality that Tucker said the officers take personally.
“The fact of the matter is, we both [Tucker and Johnson] were born and raised here in Alamance County, and we wouldn't want to be anywhere else,” Tucker said.