The Tampa Police Department is hoping to help the communities they protect and serve to see what a police officer is faced with on a daily basis.
“Now you get a chance to see the other side,” said Officer Lanard Taylor, “There’s a reasoning for a lot of the things we do and now hopefully you’ll get a chance to see some of the reasoning.”
Taylor explains they are often met with a lot of negativity while on patrol, as seen in one clip when a driver flicks cigarette ashes on the officer and talks to him with rudeness and obvious disrespect.
“That just happens all the time, every day,” Taylor said.
However, it’s not all negativity all the time. Taylor said they get many chances to help those in need – some in the form of daring rescues, others like simple acts of helping a resident with a broken wheelchair, fixing a flat tire on a bicycle and tossing a football with a local kid.
Andrea Davis, a spokesperson with the Tampa Police Department, said they hope to build trust with the community and show the sides of an officer’s day that often don’t make headlines.
“The goal was just to show what really happens, kind of you’re riding shotgun with a police officer in the car with them,” Davis said. “We just wanted to show the community the perspective from the officers, what they see.”
“Despite the crazy stuff,” Taylor said, “… at the end of the day when you have that kid who looks at you and says, ‘I want to be a police officer,’ or he comes and he wants to talk to you or he wants to give you a high five or he wants to play basketball with you, that makes it all worth it.”
[ Fox 10 ]
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