Milan police prep for annual Shop with a Cop

MILAN, Tenn. — With the holidays right around the corner, one police department is spreading some Christmas love.

The Milan Police Department is kicking off their annual Shop with a Cop program in hopes of spreading joy throughout the community.

“Shop with a Cop is something we’ve been doing here in Milan for over 20 years. We started when one of our dispatchers came to us years ago with an idea of a way for our police officers to kind of give back to the community they serve,” said Milan Police Chief Bobby Sellers.

Sellers has been a part of the program since it began, and he says he hopes it continues to grow every year.

“I think this year, at last count we had about 80 kids who wanted to go shopping, and that’s almost three times as many employees as I have. We’ll spend this year, around $25,000. It’ll figure out to be between $250 and $300 a kid,” Sellers said.

The Milan Police Department wasn’t able to do much last year due to COVID-19, but this year, they plan on doing a bit more to celebrate the holiday season.

“Staff here, they pair the officer up with their child for the night. Then we form a line of police cars, and we drive from downtown Milan, into our Walmart on South 1st Street and have a long procession with blue lights/sirens. The kids get to ride inside the police car and they seem to be really excited about that,” Sellers said.

So if you see blue lights and loud sirens parading down the streets of Milan, it may not be because of an emergency.

“This will be December the 9. We’ll meet up at 5:30 at our FEMA building. Then let our motorist and residents know that if they see a long line of blue lights, not to be an alarm cause it’s just some kids heading out to Walmart to do some shopping,” Sellers said.

You can stay up-to-date with the Milan Police Department through their Facebook page.

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