The story behind Story Time with Officer Rick Sanders

KENNEWICK, Wash.-- You may have seen the videos of Officer Rick Sanders with the Kennewick Police Department reading children's stories from the cab of his patrol car, or the conference room at the police station, and wondered what led to a retired Air Force guy reading kids books on social media.

It all started earlier this year, when Officer Sanders was invited to read stories to students at Edison Elementary School.

"I enjoyed it! I had a little interactive session with the kids, I asked them hey, what questions do you have for a police officer? Because kids don't often have the opportunity to just talk to a police officer. Sometimes we go to places where we have to see the kids or talk to their parents and it's kind of a negative thing," Sanders said. "So this was a great thing to see."

When schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, teachers wanted to continue providing their students with that positive interaction, while also keeping kids engaged in long-distance learning. So, Officer Sanders provided them with videos to share with the students. That's when he asked his higher ups at the police department if he could post the stories to the Kennewick Police Department facebook page.

Officer Sanders and the police department have to get permission from the book publishers to post the videos on the public forum, and he has a team of experts to help him pick just the right stories.

"A neighbor of mine was a librarian for about 40 years, and she has a library of books. I go through her books and get recommendations from other people. I like books with a little bit of a sense of humor. It's either a funny book and a book that has a good message. Those are things that are important to me."

Officer Sanders records the story readings in between answering calls for service. If he appears a little distracted from time to time, that's because he has an ear piece that he's listening to while reading, and needs to pay attention to the radio traffic.

While Officer Sanders enjoys reading to the kiddos and getting reactions from them, it's not just the children that he's thinking about when he's reading.

"As soon as the coronavirus came out and people were getting quarantined in their homes, I was thinking, what can I do to help?" Sanders said. "I love reading to the kids and I love doing this for the kids, I really thought about these parents. At that time and even now, they're going through really hard times. They're losing their jobs. All of a sudden they have three kids at home that they weren't prepared to feed or entertain. Granted, these books are only three to six minutes long, but if that gives these parents or caregivers a few minutes to just relax while these kids can sit down and watch me read to them, I'm hoping that helps somebody out there to take a deep breath and take a break for a second."