Erica Bullock was prepared for a bleak Christmas two years ago.
The now 34-year-old North Little Rock mother of four boys, ages 7 to 16, was going through a job change during the 2012 holidays. Money was tight. Bills loomed. Still, there were four young boys hopeful for a visit from Santa Claus.
Enter Shop With a Cop, a program the North Little Rock Police Department started in 2004 to provide a Christmas to single, working parents in the city. The program offers gift cards to children in selected families in need, and the children go shopping in early December with uniformed officers from the department, choosing exactly what presents they want under the tree Dec. 25.
Bullock, who works for Verizon Wireless now, can't recall exactly what her children bought themselves that Christmas two years ago, but she knows what she received: a dose of holiday cheer.
"It meant so much," she said. "At the time, I was going through some personal things in my life. I had just recently got back employed and was not able to provide a Christmas that year. It meant the world to me that my boys actually got picked, and they got to experience that. They just loved that."
Shonya Hardin, a mother of three who works at Family Dollar, shares a similar story about the North Little Rock program, which other law enforcement agencies in Arkansas -- including Conway and Saline County -- also provide. The 35-year-old and her three children, ages 10 to 15, participated in Shop With a Cop in 2013.
Her oldest children -- two girls -- got tablets, clothes and shoes. Her youngest child, a boy, bought himself a basketball goal.
"It meant a lot to me and my kids to know that there's a program out there to help families instead of the handouts," Hardin said. "Because I work, I can't get a lot of assistance. I have income, but it's harder because it's a single-family household with three kids.
"They got presents that I wanted to get them but couldn't afford. It was wonderful."
Smiles on the faces of hardworking North Little Rock single parents and their children, and a bountiful visit from Santa Claus, is just one half of Shop With a Cop -- a national program believed to have started in Las Vegas in the late 1970s.
The program also is about building a stronger bond between police and the communities they serve, said North Little Rock police officer Tommy Norman, who started the department's Shop With a Cop. Children encounter officers patrolling their neighborhoods or visiting their schools, but Shop With a Cop builds lasting relationships, he said.
"When you have a police officer spend an hour or two with a child, helping them choose what they want for Christmas, it goes beyond the uniform," Norman said. "Friendships are formed. I know some officers actually keep in touch with these kids. They follow up with them and visit with them. It's beyond a meet and greet.
"This program builds trust and respect between the community and the Police Department. One of our goals has always been that when kids see us, instead of running away from us and being scared, we want them to run to our police car."
Before participating in Shop With a Cop in 2012, Bullock said her interaction with the North Little Rock Police Department was nonexistent. The program taught her that officers go beyond merely protecting and serving. The police are part of her community, she said, and the officers who took her children shopping are still involved in their lives.
"I think it shows the younger generation that it is not just, 'We're police, and we're here because there is a problem,'" Bullock said. "The cops are showing them a newer side."
North Little Rock Police Chief Mike Davis said community-strengthening programs such as Shop With a Cop are more important than ever, with national events putting an extra emphasis on relations between police and their communities.
"Sometimes we are looked at from a bad angle, and [Shop With a Cop] allows us this chance to kind of show our true colors," said Davis, who participates in the program and is assisting a 5-year-old girl with her shopping this year. "That age group we help with Shop With a Cop ... they are the ones we have the chance to make the biggest impact on."
Norman, a 16-year veteran of the department, said North Little Rock families begin applying for Shop With a Cop as early as summer. Families are vetted, pay stubs are checked for income levels and utility bills are submitted for residency requirements. Norman and officers even visit with parents and children before selecting them.
The number of families chosen each year depends on how much money is donated to the program by local individuals, businesses, churches and other organizations. Norman estimates children have received around $110,000 in the past four years to purchase presents through Shop With a Cop. Sixty-five North Little Rock children participated in the program this year, receiving $200 gift cards and shopping at the Wal-Mart on McCain Boulevard.
"We seek out the families that truly need assistance," Norman said. "We're looking for working families, people who are truly trying to make a difference themselves but who still need that extra push at Christmas time."
That monetary goodwill at Christmas stretches throughout the year, said Rekina Bolds, a 34-year-old mother of two, ages 5 and 12, who works at CHI St. Vincent Infirmary.
A 2013 participant in the program, Bolds said she and her children still visit with the officers who guided her children on their shopping trip.
"It was a pretty good Christmas," she said. "It's a blessing to have the Police Department help the single mothers, and it helps relations with the department."
Metro on 12/25/2014