The Police Activities League (PAL) of Southwest Washington on July 13 honored Ridgefield police officer Kaylin Debiak with its Law Enforcement Volunteer of the Quarter award.
Debiak has been a police officer for six years and has spent four of those years in the Ridgefield area.
She has been involved in the PAL program, a volunteer effort allowing law enforcement officers to get involved in a positive way with the children of Ridgefield.
“What it does is it bridges the gap between police officers and the youth in our community,” Debiak said.
The PAL program means that officers such as Debiak can go visit middle and elementary schools and spend time bonding with the students.
“I’m assigned to a specific classroom that I go in once a month and I read stories, do a class project or something else that’s teacher-led,” Debiak said. “I’ve gone into a math or science lesson and just sat on the floor and answered funny questions.”
According to Debiak, the purpose of doing these activities with the kids of the community is to give the police an opportunity to let the children develop a relationship with the officers.
“I will have kids almost crash their bike when they see me driving on the street just to say hi to me,” Debiak said. “It gives us police officers the chance to know and hang out with kids, which is my passion.”
Having police officers spend time with them seems to be a favorite pastime for the students Debiak visits.
There was a time when she was visiting her students during recess, and pretty much every kid wanted her attention, inviting her to play soccer, basketball, climb on the jungle gyms, race or even go down a slide.
“I’ll just show up at lunch and sit down with one student, and pretty soon the whole table’s full,” Debiak said.
On many occasions, she’s been around town or at events when students have come up to her and introduced their parents and grandparents.
For the Ridgefield officer, these interactions help make it easier when she has to fulfill her responsibilities in law enforcement.
In the cases when Debiak might have to do a home visit when a child is present, this program provides the ability to not see her as intimidating, but as another human.
“Even though it could be terrible, the child knows that they can trust us and that we’re going to do the best thing that we can do,” Debiak said.
The humanization of officers also allows for kids to feel capable of asking hard questions of her should they be curious.
“Policing obviously has come a long way from when I was a kid. I was taught that if I was playing basketball, and a cop was in the street, to hide behind a car,” Debiak said. “I think there’s a huge difference now, where the police officer will stop and play basketball.”
As an assignment and a volunteer program, PAL has allowed Debiak to reshape her own perception of what it means to be a police officer and the perception of the children in her community.
Through this donation-based program, she’s been able to connect with the kids of the community and leave a good impression as to what an officer should be.
“It’s just so much fun. It’s good to know that I’ve made
some sort of impact in relationships,” Debiak said.
Learn more about PAL online at palofswwa.org.
