Social media case reflection #2

By Mikala Lindhardt

When you call the police to report a complaint the police will show up and assess the situation, but may not always do what you hope they would.

            My blog post today are my thoughts and ideas regarding the Florida police officer, Officer Bobby White, who answered a call of someone complaining of kids playing basketball in the street and being ‘loudly’. When the officer assessed the situation he ended up just playing ball with them and giving them something they will remember for a lifetime.

            You could argue the officer is not trustworthy and should have been more concerned about the individual who called dispatch because the kids were being loud, but just as an article from CNN said quoting the police department, “we are going to let kids be kids.” The police department acknowledged the fact that they weren’t there when the kids were supposedly being too noisy. “To be fair, we can't say definitively whether the person who deemed the situation worthy of a noise complaint was in the right. We weren't there when it all went down,” the police department said in an article written by Today.

            You could also argue, and see some people upset, because the officer didn’t punish the kids for being too loud. I’m sure whoever made the initial call to the police was upset and possibly felt the police department cares more about kids than the public as a whole. However, more good than bad came of out this experience and that is where we need to shift our focus.

            Not only did this story send a positive message to the community about the care and concern Officer White has for kids who are just having a good time and making good use of their lives by being with friends and playing ball, but it is a great message to the kids. They now have someone else they can trust. That someone else being an officer in their community. I think a lot of times at a young teenage age police and officers are looked on as high authorities who don’t care or who aren’t human. This story is a great example of how an officer changed the perspective of a few people and not just because he played ball with them, but because of what he did later that week.

            An article written on this case was written by abc13 about the officer and said, “as he was leaving, he told the boys he might be back to play the next day, and he may bring more officers with him.”

            He did just that, but not only did he bring other officers with him, but NBA basketball star Shaq O’Neal jumped out of an SUV in the neighborhood.

            I can only imagine the look at the excitement on the teenager’s faces. When O’Neil got out of the car the kids new exactly who he was. Probably an idol some of the kids.

            This story is popular and well known because of social media. The police department put up this video on its Facebook page and it went viral, both with positive and negative comments (as you would expect). Officer White’s reaction to this situation was caught on his dash cam. When we use social media, we are to be responsible, trustworthy, transparent, respectful and open. This is exactly how White and his department handled this situation. They were open and respectful about this call and in turn were given positive feedback from the public and news agencies.

            Just as we need to switch our focus to the positive outcome of this story, the officers switched their focus to be more concerned and aggressive toward those who commit crimes in the city. The viral video put out by the Gainseville Police Department said, “So if you call GPD to complain about kids being kids, this is how Officer White is going to handle it. We're going to let kids be kids. We are going to focus on the ones that commit crimes. #HoopsNotCrime."

Click here to see the video put out by the GPD.