There’s an old tale about a boy who was trying to save starfish washed up on a beach by throwing them in the water one by one. When a man nearby said, “There are too many starfish, you can’t make any difference,” the boy replied, “I can make a difference to this one” as he returned it to the ocean.

The message of this story—that helping just one can make a difference—was the inspiration for Nicole Banks when she launched The Starfish Assignment, an all-volunteer nonprofit devoted to strengthening the bonds between law enforcement and the community it serves.

Starfish grew out of a chance meeting in 2018, when Banks saw Jim, a Vietnam Marine veteran, living in his car. A former Marine herself, Banks was greatly moved by his situation. And with the help of friends, she managed to change the life of this one individual. Soon after Jim was settled in a new home and receiving veterans’ benefits, Banks read about Columbus Division of Police (CDP) Officer Matt Dunbar, who had paid out of his own pocket to put a homeless man in a motel and help him turn his life around too.

Realizing that partnering with police officers would be an ideal way to identify and help people in need, Banks, who was a Military Police Officer in the Marines, partnered with the CDP to establish the Starfish Assignment.

Since 2018, many CDP officers have worked personally with Starfish to provide significant, direct help to more than 16,000 individuals. But the program does not receive any funding from the CDP or any other law enforcement agency. Nor does it have any paid employees; it relies fully on donations of time and money from individuals and businesses in the community.

An officer-focused and -led program

Most importantly, the Starfish Assignment is led by officers who see people in need of help while they are working in the community. “We only take on solving problems that the officers have seen during their duties,” says Banks. Starfish is also focused on immediate needs. An example she gives is an officer who had to evict a family with children from their home. He contacted Starfish, which put them up in a hotel until they could get their bearings.

Said Banks, “Many people live paycheck to paycheck, and though social services may help them, they take a while to do so, whereas people in situations like this can’t wait. Officers may also see that there is no food in a home, and we can authorize them to purchase it for the family to meet the immediate need. We'll then reimburse them for buying it.”

The overarching goal of the Starfish Assignment is to bridge the gap between police and the communities they serve through engagement in “micro-assignments” as well as regular activities and programs.

Micro-assignments, programs, and activities

Micro-assignments are ways that patrol officers and detectives can directly provide tangible help to someone in their community. Among the many micro-assignments that have had a major impact is the assistance one officer gave to a family living in a derelict, soon-to-be-condemned apartment, enabling them to move into a new home.

Officers have also helped the family of a murder victim with the financial burdens resulting from the crime, obtained a phone for an elderly woman with medical issues but no means of communication, and purchased an electric mobility scooter for a disabled Marine veteran. These are just a sample of the Starfish Assignment’s many outreach activities.

CDP officers, command staff, and administrative personnel also interact and help members of the community through regular activities and annual events. One of the most popular is Books and Badges. Since 2019, when it started, 50,000 books have been read and given to children.

Said Starfish board member and CDP Lieutenant Christopher Lieb, “Each officer takes copies of a book they want to read one-on-one to individual kids. Some officers don’t ordinarily do many community events, but everyone who does Books and Badges wants to read again. The officers autograph their books, the kids hug them, and the officers feel like rock stars.”

Important conversations and critical needs

Said Banks, “For some children, this is the only book they have ever had. It also gives the officer an opportunity to talk to them about their concerns. Kids often ask about the officer’s gun, which leads to a discussion of what they should do if they find one somewhere. If they weren’t told what to do, they might pick it up.”

An equally popular program is Bikes and Badges. Held in partnership with Columbus Recreation and Parks, other local police agencies, and local business sponsors, it has donated 900 bikes to children who would otherwise not have them since 2020.

Some activities meet more critical needs. In 2018, when officers saw children walking to school layered in sweatshirts to keep warm, they started the winter coat program, which has given out 2,375 coats since then. Another critical need was met by an officer who worked with a home improvement store through Starfish to obtain door security bars for crime victims who didn’t feel safe at home. More than 1,000 have been donated so far, and the impact was immediately seen when the security bar kept one victim’s attacker from kicking down her door until officers arrived.

The CDP also sponsors larger initiatives such as summer block parties in which command and administrative staff participate as well. Held in every patrol zone, they include food, games with prizes for kids, information booths, and visits from the fire department and representatives of other agencies.

A morale boost for officers

Banks believes that Starfish helps officers’ mental health because some situations are traumatizing and Starfish gives them a chance to ameliorate those feelings by providing direct help to people and seeing the impact they’ve made.

Lt. Lieb agrees, saying that Starfish supports officers who often wish they could do more positive things in their communities and that the officers feel good when they do. It also builds trusting relationships between them and the people they serve.

Said CDP Deputy Chief Timothy Myers, “Starfish makes resources available to officers to offer to citizens themselves. It empowers them to identify needs in their neighborhood and respond to them in immediate and concrete ways.

“It also keeps the focus on community service for officers in homicide, investigations, and other areas of our department. It’s easy to think that the work of building community relations can all be done by our community resource officers. This has to be everyone’s duty,” he adds.

“Community-oriented policing—done well—isn’t a program, it’s an ethos,” Deputy Chief Myers continued. “Agencies can support community policing through training and policy, but the true work of community policing occurs in the daily interactions of officers with their neighbors. The partnership between [the] CDP and [the] Starfish Assignment has always recognized this.”

There are now 30 law enforcement agencies in six states participating in the Starfish Assignment. And the CDP’s local, state, and federal partners have joined the division in Starfish Assignment projects.

Faye C. Elkins
Sr. Technical Writer
COPS Office

Images courtesy of The Starfish Assignment.

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