A Buffalo police officer is making headlines for his policing that is bringing the community together.
After a noise nuisance call against some children playing football in the street, Officer Patrick McDonald responded arriving at the scene, but what he did next surprised the children.
Instead of cutting off the game, McDonald decided to join in. In video footage shot by one of the children he can be seen getting out of his squad car and asking casually, “Where we lining up?”
The next videos show him running and catching a pass, much to the applause of the children.
In the last video, the police officer even cracks a joke asking, “Do you guys want me to file a police report, because you just got robbed?” before driving off in his police cruiser.
The videos that went viral even got the attention of Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown, who called the episode, “community policing at its best.”
The mayor shared the videos on Facebook and said in the post he is proud of McDonald and that his actions show how they are truly “the City of Good Neighbors.”
McDonald told WFMY that he was happy with the positive response from the community.
“It helps break down the barrier, this ”us versus them“ barrier. And, at the same time, it shows that police officers empathize with the general public and that we have a lot of common interests. Like playing football,” he said.
The original posting of the videos has garnered over 1,360 shares on Facebook as of this writing.
The incident shows how you can turn little things into a positive experience for the community. In this case, it just took a short football game.
