Recurring program

Shop with a Cop

Springfield elementary students shop for the holidays alongside police officers and sheriff's deputies.

When
Every December
Place
Walmart, 1105 Boston Road, Springfield
Format
Annual, December
Documented
December 2019 and December 2020, from photographs. December 10, 2019 is dated to 6 PM from a store sign.
Partners
Walmart · City Connects · Springfield Police C3 · Springfield Public Schools · Hampden County Sheriff's Department

How it works

Students picked through City Connects at Springfield public schools are paired with officers and deputies at the Boston Road Walmart, and shop for the holidays together. WWLP 22News has covered it.

We hold photographs from two Decembers. The 2019 set shows the store tree and no masks. The 2020 set shows masked officers with children in the toy aisle, which is how we know the program ran straight through the pandemic rather than skipping a year.

Neither set is published here, because children are identifiable in them and we hold no media releases.

We are still writing this one up

What we can source is above. The story is not. If you were there and can tell us how it went, or you have photographs, we would like to hear from you.

Tell us about this event

Sources

Everything on this page traces back to one of these. Where a source is not public, we say so rather than leave the claim bare.

  1. WWLP 22NewsStudents shop with a cop at Springfield Walmart.
  2. Photo archive (not published)Two batches, December 2019 and December 2020. They stay unpublished because children appear in them and we hold no media releases.