Cops and Bobbers makes kids' morning

MONTROSE – If the name itself wasn’t intriguing enough, the event sure turned out to be.
About 30 youth showed up at the Heron Bend Fishing Area Saturday morning for the first annual Cops and Bobbers fishing derby.
The morning of fishing started at about 9 a.m. with area law enforcement officers, including Lee County Conservation, helped youngsters navigate baiting hooks, casting, reeling in a fish, and where to look for great fish.
Families took kids all around the Heron Bend pond to look for bluegill, bass, and some small bullhead. Officers with Fort Madison Police, who organized the event, and Lee County Sheriff’s office and Conservation Department stood at outcroppings and along the shores of the pond just south of Fort Madison watching over the kids as they worked the water.
Fort Madison Police Chief Cody Potthast said the turnout was great and worked toward his vision of more community-oriented policing.
“We had 30 anticipated to show up. We originally had capped it at 25, but I had a hard time saying no,” he said.
“This is a great opportunity for the kids to experience healthy activities, especially during the summer, and enjoy the great outdoors.”
Fort Madison Investigator Dakota Worley came up with the idea and organized the event. He said peers in Burlington had done something similar. He tweaked the name and put gears in motion.
The event is the second community event county law enforcement has put on. They held a spring kickball day at Fort Madison High School.
Potthast said this goes toward his goal for reaching out to the community in a different way.

“It’s in the realm of what I’ve focused on for community-based policing. We want to be be involved with the community in a positive way, so I told him to run with it. We’ve had great support from Lee County Sheriff’s Department, Lee County Conservation donated a whole bunch of fishing equipment, and Axalta donated funds for worms and Casey’s pizza.
Potthast said he’s hoping, with current staffing levels, to do one event a quarter.
“We do a great job on the enforcement side of law enforcement - and that’s our primary job - but I would like to spend more time in the community with positive things and being involved in that,” he said.
“This produces a positive feel with the community as far as law enforcement. We’re not just here to enforce the law, whether it be a speeding citation or, unfortunately, a domestic, but to see us as neighborhood support.”
Worley said it brings a different group of kids than the kickball tournament they held this spring. He also said the volunteer support and donations to put on the two-hour event has been great.
“It’s cost effective in the grand scheme of things and it brings in a different group of kids we get to interact with,” Worley said.
Clint Oldfield, Parks Management Ranger for Lee County, spent the morning helping kids cast and bait hooks, and even educated children on the different kinds of fish being reeled in.
“We know that if we get the kids hooked on something good and wholesome, it occupies their time as they get older where they won’t get distracted by the nefarious things of life,” Oldfield said.
“Law enforcement officers are people just like everybody else. Policing society is education. Policing society is not us v. them. And I think that’s happened in past periods of time, but I think this is a wonderful event the way everyone has come together to put this on.”
Major Joe Hambleton, with Lee County Sheriff’s Dept., said the department has wanted to get the sheriff’s rescue boat out and they may be able to integrate that at some point into fishing with area youth.