WACO, TX — Amiyah is 4 years old and grew up around family members in the social service. Her mom a probation officer, her uncle works for CPS and her grandfather a Waco Police Officer.
"I love the police officers," Amiyah said.
Although the love might not have always been there, her mom noticed Amiyah was a bit intimidated by them when she got pulled over one day.
"I got stopped by the police for speeding and it was just like 'whew' she instantly got froze up, scared, didn't want to talk or move," Mom, Brittany Bates said.
That's when Bates knew it was time for Amiyah to meet some of her local police officers. Bates messaged a friend from high school who is an officer at Waco PD now and they quickly invited Amiyah to come meet them in person.
"I feel like it's very important to teach her that all police officers aren't bad but also I don't want her to grow up with that fear," Bates said.
Community policing is very important to Waco PD, Officer Garen Bynum says they do all they can to bridge the gap between citizens and officers.
"Taking the extra time to spend with an individual whether it's on a call or situations like this where they got to actually come up here. That's what we had to focus on this year with COVID," Officer Bynum said.
They don't post about it every day but officers at the Waco Police Department focus on creating a relationship with their citizens every day.
"The great thing is this really is the true definition of community policing. This is the kind of stuff that our officers do every day, we just had a chance to highlight it," Bynum said.
After meeting with them, and getting a sticker Amiyah has a new career goal in mind.
"A police officer, so I can take people to jail," Amiyah said.
Bates is happy to see that her daughter is comfortable with her local police and overjoyed that Waco PD took the time to talk with Amiyah.
"They could obviously tell she was nervous, and so how officer Johnson immediately got down to her level and stated talking to her and then Officer Moon gave her a fist bump and I could tell that immediately lifted her spirits," Bates said.
Until Amiyah can put that uniform on, she thanks the officers working daily, risking their lives, to keep her safe.
"Thank you to the police officers, for keeping me safe," Amiyah said.
