The ThunderBlogs

Blue and red flashing lights, uniformed officers and an explosives detection dog are usually signs that a major incident is happening in East Vancouver.  But on Sunday, these were part of the draw to Cops, Kids & Woodland Park, a family-friendly event put on by the Grandview-Woodlands Community Policing Centre.

Some East Vancouver communities have a rocky relationship with the Vancouver Police Department, with distrust being a fairly common sentiment in the area.  For Adrian Archambault, coordinator for community policing with the centre, the point of Sunday’s event was outreach to the community’s youngest members and their families.  The goal of community policing, according to Archambault, is to provide a bridge between the police and the people who live in the neighbourhood.

The annual event is usually held in Grandview Park, but moved to Woodland Park this year because of Grandview’s closure in August.  Archambault hopes that the event will encourage families to make more use of Woodland Park, which is located just off the Adanac bike route.

The theme for the day was back-to-school safety, with 50 volunteers on hand to help with child identification, bike safety and face painting.  Prabhjot Sandhar, 15, has been volunteering at events like these for the last three years.  She helps out at the community policing centre because she wants to become a police officer.

The flashing lights of a fire truck proved to be one of the day’s major draws, as children were given the opportunity to clamber into the cab for a photo.  A small crowd also formed around two-year-old Bailey, a black Labrador eager for pats from the gathered children.  Handler Constable John Alleman of the transit police explained Bailey’s role as an explosives detection dog working mostly in the Skytrain system.  Alleman tries to bring Bailey out to community events as much as possible.  “Police don’t solve crime on their own,” he said.

Tim Smatlan is a young father who lives around the corner from Woodland Park.  He brought his daughter Violet to the event after hearing about it from a neighbour.  Asked about her favourite part of the day, four and a half year old Violet proudly showed off a blue butterfly drawn like a mask over her eyes.  “Face painting!” she said between bites of hot dog smothered in ketchup.

The event seemed successful, with a few hundred people taking part in the day’s various activities.  But just three blocks away, fresh-looking graffiti painted a different picture of East Vancouver.  “Dead copz,” read a tag in vibrant green lettering on a mural near Britannia high school.  Despite events like Cops, Kids and Woodland Park, tensions between some members of the community and police still exist in this area.