Police officer plays one-on-one with boy from shelter
HIGHFILL — On Oct. 31, while many residents were taking part in the Halloween festivities, law enforcement officers were patrolling the streets and neighborhoods to keep the local citizens safe. Police officer Brett Seibert, from the Highfill Police Department, took a moment to reach out to a boy from the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter at 860 N.W. Vaughn Road in Bentonville and played a little one-on-one game of basketball.
Siebert has been an officer for a year and a half. He is one of 14 officers in the Highfill Police Department, and on Halloween night, they were patrolling the area and made a stop at the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter.
“We go by the shelter all the time when we’re working, just to make sure everything is good.”
The Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter is “a private, nonprofit organization that provides 24-hour residential, emergency triage care for children throughout Arkansas.” Sometimes, these children are victims of abuse or neglect, so the shelter gives children a safe place with “high-quality care.”
The organization provides beds, meals and clothing. Children also have access to baths and showers with all the toiletries for personal hygiene.
The shelter provides other programs, too, such as Horizon Academy and Foster the Future, which educates foster parents to be “equipped to understand” how to raise a child that has experienced trauma and maltreatment.
The shelter has also partnered with the Hope Academy, which is a charter school in Northwest Arkansas that “is an expansion of the Shelter’s programs to serve kids in crisis.”
Siebert was talking to the children and saw one boy playing basketball by himself. He took a moment to play a little one-on-one game with the boy.
Seibert himself remembers his own experiences with law enforcement when he was growing up.
“This is one of the reasons that made me want to get this job. I can honestly say, all of my interactions throughout my childhood and early adult life with law enforcement were positive.”
Because of his own experiences, Siebert knows these positive encounters can have a powerful effect on people, especially on the youth.
“If I had had a lot of negative interactions, I may not want to be here. But that shaped me to want to do this job because of the way I’ve been treated.”
As for the children at the shelter, Seibert says, “No matter what it is, they may not have had good experiences in the past. But if you can give them a positive interaction, that can change them five years, 10 years, down the road when they have any kind of interaction with law enforcement.”
Certainly, the shelter feels grateful to the officer for reaching out to the boy. On the shelter’s Facebook page, it said Seibert showed the boy all the equipment inside his police vehicle, and he “enjoyed it so much.”
“Chief Webb and his officers understand the importance of our mission and participate in fun activities and educational experiences with our children that build positive relationships with law enforcement,” said Rebekah Mitchell, executive director of the Northwest Arkansas Children’s Shelter. “We are very thankful for our partnership with the Highfill Police Department.”
This positive outreach to the boy is a good example of how people’s perceptions can change for the better if you take a moment to show you really care. These moments don’t have to be elaborate. Even a simple game of one-onone can go a long way to brighten someone’s day.