OCPD Hosts Annual ‘Shop With A Cop’ With OKCPS Students

During each holiday season, Oklahoma City police take a break from patrol duties to go shopping. The department held its annual "Shop with a Cop" on Friday with Oklahoma City Public School students.

The 25 students selected for the event paired up with a cop to shop until they dropped.

“Where did you go Gregory, did I lose you?,” Captain Valerie Littlejohn with the Oklahoma City Police Department (OCPD) said.

Many of the students already knew the officers before their shopping trip.

“We have officers in our middle and high schools, our SROs that are there,” Captain Michelle Henderson with OCPD said. “We have officers that are involved in PAL.”

Sixth grade student Aleigha Lee and Capt. Matt Lindsey with OCPD went on the hunt for the perfect jacket.

“Like those kind of coats?,” Lindsey said. “Those big coats?”

Lee found one perfect for her grandmother.

“I think she’ll like this,” Lee said.

The students and their officers filled the Academy store in southwest Oklahoma City and caused a traffic jam down the shoe aisle. It can be hard to pick when you are shopping for the family.

“A lot of them don’t even want to pick anything out for themselves,” Henderson said . “We have to really encourage them to find something they would like to buy.”

They were given $300 to spend, however, it is not uncommon for officers to pitch in extra cash when the students go over budget.

“I’ll buy it,” OCPD Chief Wade Gourley said. “It won’t come out of your money.”

At the end of the shopping spree one of the students, Luis Sanchez, 11, had a cart full of gifts.

“I came to get some good stuff for my brother, for me and my mom,” Sanchez said. “A kid in the hospital, I got him this.”   

The kids walked away with gifts they might not have received thanks to a generous community, and the officers took away something money cannot buy.