Mike Wolanin | The Republic Columbus police officer Mike Pigman helps Gianna McClackion with her homework during the Columbus Police Department’s homework with an officer program at Ashford Park Apartments in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.
Twice a week, Columbus Police Department officers turn their thoughts away from law enforcement and focus on a different kind of problem-solving.
The Homework Help With an Officer program is held at the Ashford Park Apartments’ clubhouse on Mondays and the America and Roby Anderson Community Center on Tuesdays, with both days’ sessions taking place from 4 to 5 p.m.
“We will help anybody if we can, any age kids that are in school, whether that be elementary, middle or high school, but we want to focus on the younger kids in elementary school and help them with their homework, let them get to know us as just normal people,” said CPD Patrolman Zach Wright. “We don’t go in uniform. We go in plainclothes, because we just want them to get more comfortable with us.”
Sessions usually include a snack, and sometimes, if students finish their work early, they’ll go outside and play.
The program is free, and families do not need to sign up ahead of time. Sessions take place every Monday and Tuesday as long as school is in session.
The idea for Homework Help With an Officer originated in August 2012, when two Pence Place children, both about 10 years old, proposed the idea during a neighborhood meeting with the police department and the Columbus Housing Authority.
The program was initially held at the Pence Place apartments on a weekly basis.
Since then, the program has been held at different community areas and housing complexes, moving around based on the number of kids who attend, Wright said.
However, there has been a bit of a lull post-COVID.
“We got it back up and running maybe fall of 2021, I think, and it just hasn’t really garnered the interest it used to,” he said.
At present, they’re only seeing about two to four kids at Ashford and a similar number at the community center. Wright said that he’s considered reaching out to Foundation for Youth or the i-CARE program at CSA Fodrea Elementary and seeing if they can hold sessions there in order to reach more students.
“Sometimes we’ll get a lot of kids and sometimes we won’t, but it’s been a lot of fun doing it,” Wright said. “And the big idea behind it is just trying to build a relationship with some of the younger kids in the community and build some trust with them.”
