Fremont Police to Host ‘Shop With a Cop’ Wednesday

A group of 20 local children will pick out gifts for their families with help from Fremont police officers at the 10th annual “Shop With A Cop” Wednesday morning. 

The private event allows children selected by the City of Fremont’s Human Services to purchase items that they wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise, according to the Fremont Police Department.

Starting at 8:30 a.m., the children will be chauffeured from their schools to Target by a police officer driving a patrol car disguised as a reindeer. When they get to Target, the children will get to participate in a variety of activities, including meeting a police canine, sitting on a police motorcycle and meeting Santa. Police officers will then escort children through the store to pick out items to give to their family members. Volunteers will wrap the gifts before the children finish the morning with a lunch from Outback Steakhouse.

The gifts will later be delivered to each of the children’s families  by the Human Services Department “elves.”

The children participating in Shop With A Cop will also receive a pre-purchased, wrapped gift.

The annual event began in 2003 by the Fremont Police Department, the Mission San Jose Rotary and Target “to provide children in our community with the most important gift of the holidays - the gift of giving,” the police department said in a press release.

This year’s event was made possible with support from Target, the Mission San Jose Rotary, the Fremont Police Officer’s Association, Fremont Bank, Outback Steakhouse, Starbucks, Half-Price Books, the Irvington Business Association, Walmart, Whole Foods