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Scranton Police start pen pal program with kids, individuals with special needs

Police say it's a way to maintain positive interactions with the community during COVID-19.

SCRANTON, Pa. — This is the first letter the Scranton Police Department has received as part of its new pen pal program: it's from a 15-year-old Scranton High School student.  

She writes, "I fully support the police department," and asks if they will protect her in school, and patrol her neighborhood. 

Credit: WNEP

Pre-pandemic, that was Scranton Police Officer Chris Hallock's favorite part of his job: interacting with the community, at events like National Night Out, or during trick-or-treating on Halloween. 

"I just thought about back when I was in elementary school, we had a pen pal program with the older students, and I just thought that'd be a great way for kids under 18 and special needs of all ages to interact with police since we've kind of been limited with what we can do face-to-face," said Hallock.  

The program is designed to open up the lines of communication and bridge the gap between what's going inside police headquarters, and what's going on in the community. 

"And we just want them to be able to ask questions, you know there's a lot of questions with law enforcement, especially with what's going on in the media and the public recently, so we just want kids to feel comfortable and safe to tell us what they need to tell us or ask us questions, whatever they feel. This is an open forum," said Hallock.

"If someone becomes comfortable with an officer on a one-on-one basis, they're more likely to open up to them, maybe with some things that they wouldn't open up to other people. And that could be an avenue for them to maybe get help if there's something happening in their lives that they need help with," said Scranton Police Chief Carl Graziano.

And the police department is keeping it old school - no emails or messages on social media, just physical letters.

Any kids in the Scranton area under the age of 18 and individuals with special needs of all ages are invited to send a letter.

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