Peninsula 360 Press
At 1:00 p.m. on the hot afternoon of Wednesday, September 23, an operation involving several vehicles from the Sheriff's Office arrived at the intersection of Hampshire and Halsey streets in the North Fair Oaks area.
The horn of the police vehicles, as well as the brief screech of a siren, was combined with the traditional sound of the ice cream cart.
People started to get close. The ice cream cart opened its doors and one of the sheriffs announced through a megaphone, "Free ice cream, bring, bring your little ones for ice cream!"
Amidst faces of surprise and laughter, girls and boys holding their parents' hands lined up in front of them to ask for their ice cream, which was delivered along with toys by San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos G. Bolaños himself and Christina Corpus, commander of the Community Police Unit.
"The reason we are here giving out ice cream is because the San Mateo County Community Policing Unit works very hard to build and maintain positive community relationships," said Sgt.
A car driving down Hampshire Street stopped in front of the line. Inside, a woman, with her approximately three-year-old son in the back seat, prowled around trying to find out what was going on. Suddenly an officer approached her window and instead of asking for her license and registration card, he kindly offered her an ice cream for her son. "Yes, chocolate please," she replied.
"I was happy that my two children received their ice cream and that they see that not all police officers are bad or racist," said Mrs. Adriana Rosas, mother of a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy. "If more cops in the country were like this (pointing to the sheriffs handing out ice cream), we would have less crime because people would support them, and there wouldn't be so many protests because there wouldn't be racist abuse.
"This is a way to remind people that we are here for them and when they see us in the patrols and in the uniforms, they sit down with confidence, they say hello and they don't hesitate to dial 911 when they need us," Zuno said.
The community police also distributed ice cream on Barron Street, Dumbarton Street and the Sienna Youth Center.
