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THURSDAY, APR IL 30, 2020 • KOKOMO TR IBUNE / PHAROS-TR IBUNE
KIM DUNLAP
KOKOMO TRIBUNE
U
sually this time of year, Tipton
Police Department Officer Dave
Maddox is busy roaming the
halls of the local elementary school,
high-fiving students and asking them
what they’re most looking forward to
about the upcoming summer
vacation.
A school resource officer at Tipton
Community School Corp. for the past
two years, Maddox normally works
with about 1,500 students from pre-K
through high school.
“The best part of my job is just inter-
acting with kids at lunch and in the
hallways and extracurricular activi-
ties,” he said. “I kind of just get to
hang out with them and be a positive
role model, just show them a different
kind of law enforcement.”
But that was before COVID-19
forced TCSC to close, taking Maddox
away from the students and putting
him back as a full-time TPD afternoon
patrolman.
And that’s when Maddox came up
with the idea that has blown up on the
department’s Facebook page.
“I’ve noticed driving patrol now
that I see a lot of kids that are kind of
down and just don’t know what to do,”
Maddox said, “so we came up with the
idea a couple weeks ago that I’d go visit
them. I just decided to call some people
that I knew [at first], and it kind of all
got started from there. And now I’ve
probably been on between 15 and 20
visits in just a little over a week. It’s all
from a safe distance, of course.”
A lot of the time, the officer’s
drop-in visits are pre-planned via con-
versations with parents, but Maddox
has also been known to see one of his
former students out playing in the
yard while he drives by on patrol, and
it’s enough to warrant an impromptu
selfie stop.
“It’s just a way to touch base with
them all,” he said. “I just think it’s
cool for them to see me and see that I
am just a normal guy going through
the same things they are. I’m stuck
at home too unless I’m working, so
it’s neat for them to see how life has
changed for everybody and not just
them.
“The biggest thing is, I just get a
chance to ask them how everything’s
going, how e-Learning’s going and
how they’re behaving,” Maddox added.
“And then I tease them and ask, ‘Would
your mom tell me the same thing?’ It’s
all just mostly small talk really and a
chance to show them that somebody
out there cares about them.”
And while the visits are having a
positive effect on Maddox, he said he
also feels like the kids are enjoying
them just as much.
“One parent said that once she told
her daughter that I was coming, she
[the kid] actually sat on the porch and
waited for me,” he said laughing. “I
just think it’s cool for me to see them
and them to see me.”
Because at the end of the day, life
in quarantine might mean physical
separation, Maddox noted, but that
sense of community far outweighs the
distance between us.
“It just shows that people, especially
here in Tipton County, care,” he said,
referring to the visits with the kids.
“We know them and are one of them.
We live right next door to them. That’s
just part of living in smaller towns and
smaller tight-knit communities like
this. We’re a small community, but we
care a lot.”
GOING THE EXTRA MILE
Tipton police officer visits his students during quarantine
Officer David
Maddox
is
Tipton
Community
School
Corp.’s
school
resource
officer. While
school has
been out,
he’s back on
patrol for
Tipton Police
Department
and driving
around to his
students’
houses to
visit them.
Photo by Tim Bath
