Community Corner
Police Offer a Multilingual Take on Halloween Safety at Street Fair
The Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 67 will hold down a booth at the River Road Street Fair on Sunday, where they'll distribute safety tip sheets, coloring books and candy.
This year, keeping in mind the borough's diverse population, the Fair Lawn Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 67 has put a little polyglot twist on the customary Halloween safety sheets the group distributes at the River Road Street Fair.
For the first time, the PBA's Halloween Safety Tips trifold has been translated into four languages — English, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew — so it can reach each of Fair Lawn's most prominent demographic groups. Universal Dialect in Teaneck provided the translations.
In addition to the safety tips sheets, kids who stop by the PBA's booth on Sunday will receive a Halloween-themed coloring book and have the opportunity to get fingerprinted for an I.D. kit.
Find out what's happening in Fair Lawn-Saddle Brookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The PBA, Fair Lawn Police Auxiliary and Knights of Columbus have teamed up on the children's I.D. kit, which the PBA is asking parents to fill out for their children and store at home in a safe place in the occasion their child should go missing.
Along with fingerprints, which the child can have done at the street fair Sunday, the I.D. kit lets parents attach a photo, a DNA sample, dental and medical records and a list of friends, favorite places, foods and habits, among other things.
Find out what's happening in Fair Lawn-Saddle Brookwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
PBA president Michael O'Brien said Fair Lawn's Explorers, a group of 14-to-21-year-olds who are interested in a career in law enforcement and assist the police department, will do the prints, if the child's parents permit. He said he'd like to expand use of the children's I.D. kit throughout the school system so more local kids are on record.
O'Brien, who will man the PBA's booth with a number of other officers on Sunday, encouraged kids to stop by with their families, noting that with the D.A.R.E. program and Citizens Police Academy on hiatus, the street fair is now one of the few times residents have the opportunity to casually interact with police officers and see them as "real" people.
--
Follow Fair Lawn-Saddle Brook Patch on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to receive our daily newsletter in your inbox each morning
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
