GREENFIELD — He stood out in the crowd, wearing a red Santa Claus jacket over his brown uniform.
His utility belt — a pistol on one hip and a stun-gun on the other — was strapped around his waist at the same spot a black patent leather belt might sit on anyone else dressed as Christmas’s jolliest elf.
Sheriff-elect Brad Burkhart called himself “Tactical Santa” as he stood outside the Greenfield Walmart, a Salvation Army red kettle at his side and a bell in his hand.
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The sheriff’s department and Greenfield Police Department participated last Friday in their bell-ringing battle — a friendly competition in which members of each department take up posts at opposite entrances to the supercenter to raise money.
The effort was part of an ongoing campaign that both departments consider just as important as arresting criminals and keeping the peace: community outreach.
The idea is not new, although the friendly bell-ringing competition is a fresh twist on law enforcement’s efforts to reinforce positive perceptions with the public.
“Since I have been chief, my message to our officers has been we are more to our community that just peace keepers,” said Jeff Rasche, chief of the Greenfield Police Department, who stood with some of his officers at the opposite entrance to Walmart on Friday night, bell in hand. “We are now more than ever engaged with our community.”
Burkhart, who takes over as sheriff on Jan. 1, has been having one-on-one meetings with his deputies. One important topic: giving back to the community. Noting that the “vast majority” of people appreciate the work done by law enforcement, Burkhart said he wants his staff to reciprocate.
“It is important for us as public safety officers and officials to show our appreciation right back to the public,” he said.
Programs such as Community Night Out; Cops for Kids/Shop with a Deputy; and the departments’ civilian police academies are designed to lower the barriers between officers and deputies and the community they serve.
So, on Friday night, representatives of both departments took up their bells with community service — not to mention bragging rights — on their minds.
After last year’s inaugural event, both departments stepped up their game this year to attract the most donors.
GPD brought warm drinks and cookies. Patrolman Justin Thomas wore a Grinch costume and posed for pictures with kids.
Burkhart brought two reindeer.
It worked. Throughout the night, the crowd around the sheriff’s department kettle was larger than the police department’s crowd, as people stopped to chat with deputies and watch the reindeer munch on hay.
“Where’d you get these?” a voice called out about the animals.
“Santa,” Burkhart called back, earnestly. “Nobody wants to believe me, but we got them from Santa.”
Across the way, from near his kettle, Rasche couldn’t help but smirk in a good-natured way and shake his head. It was clear they’d been outdone.
He and Patrolman Jon Anderson greeted passers-by with bright smiles anyway, thanking them for their donations.
In the end, it was the donations that mattered, regardless of who raised more or what tactics they used to get to the top. The funds they’d collected would go to a good cause, everyone involved knew, and there was no beating that. The total raised: $2,125.50. The sheriff’s department “won” the competition by less than $300, officials said Tuesday.
Contributions throughout the night came in all sizes.
One little girl approached the sheriff’s department kettle with a plastic baggy filled with pennies, said Amy West, a sheriff’s department employee.
It was everything she had had in her piggy bank, she told them, and she seemed happy to give it away to someone else who might need it.
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The Hancock County Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Campaign is the organizations only annual fundraiser. Bell-ringers outside stores seek the petty change of passing shoppers; and the pennies, dimes and dollar bills placed into over the month-long event add up thousands of dollars for charity.
All the money collected in Hancock County stays in Hancock County.
Seventy percent of the donations are used to assist individuals and families in financial emergencies. Another 20 percent is used to fund local nursing home programs, children’s summer camps and school supplies distributions.
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