By Jeremy Weldon

The Batesville Blue will add pink to their colors this summer while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Police Chief Jimmy McCloud told the Mayor and Board of Aldermen in last week’s meeting they can expect to see a pink Police Department cruiser on patrol in Batesville the first week of July. A company in Jackson agreed to provide free labor to wrap a police car with pink material to raise funds for cancer patients at St. Jude’s.

“Everyone in Batesville knows someone who lost a battle with cancer, or is a cancer survivor. It has touched all of us,” McCloud said. “This is just another way for the police to interact with the community and have another level of communication.”

TVEPA will partner with police to promote interest in the pink car

McCloud said once the car arrives it will be used for regular patrols sometimes, but will mostly be taken to special events in the city and parked in high traffic areas to solicit donations. Anyone making a donation to the St. Jude fundraiser will be allowed to sign the wrapped car with the names of friends or family affected by cancer.

“We hope people will sign the car in honor of, or in memory of, people that have been part of a fight with cancer. At the end of the summer we will make a presentation to St. Jude,” he said. “Our officers really enjoy these kinds of things because it gives us an opportunity to be out with the citizens and doing something that everyone cares about.”

Last fall, McCloud allowed Batesville officers – usually required to be clean shaven – to participate in “No Shave November” to raise money for LeBonheur’s Children’s Hospital, also in Memphis. In that fundraiser, officers recruited family and friends to “pay” the chief for the right to have a beard, or “paid” him to allow their scruffy spouses or others to allow an officer to shave.

The department had good response from that event leading McCloud to consider other charitable causes. Batesville police spend considerable time and resources pursuing community interaction including weekly visits to elementary classrooms, quarterly breakfast meetings with citizens where complaints and questions are openly addressed with officers, and numerous efforts to connect with the general public, especially youngsters.

McCloud said in an interview last year his goal is for officers to become friends with every young person in Batesville and stay involved with their families as they grow. That approach to policing, he said, will pay off in 10 years when officers are familiar with, and friends to, a whole generation of young adults who have good relationships with local law enforcement personnel.

One of the department’s most successful events is the summer’s Picnic With Police held at the Civic Center – this year slated for July 13. For the Picnic, McCloud rents all types of bounce houses and slides and asks civic organization members to oversee games, lunch serving, face painting, and a dunking booth among other activities.

McCloud hopes to have enough volunteers to leave police officers free to mingle with children and their parents, making vital community connections. Officers also bring police cars to the floor of the Civic Center and allow children to sit in the cars and push buttons.

The lure of free food, fun, and the cool air of the Civic Center on a hot summer day was enough to attract hundreds to the PIcnic With Police last year, and the chief is expecting a larger crowd this year.

To volunteer funds or manpower for the Picnic event, or any police department outreach, contact McCloud or Deputy Chief Kerry Pittman at 563-5653.