It’s important for a police officer to know his or her community, to have a positive reputation, and maybe even be liked.
Tommy Norman, with the North Little Rock Police Department, fits all three of those categories. And he is very active on social media, sharing his often-fun encounters with the people he meets, encourages, and protects. His fans number in the millions on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
Here are some examples of what he shares
“Well, we had some snow here in Arkansas and it was a kind of snow that you can pack in the snowballs, good snow for snowball fights and what better way than to get out of your warm police car and get out into someone's front yard and have a snowball fight with some kids....It's a snowball fight with your local police officer. And it's a snowball fight that those kids, even myself, will remember for a long time,” explains Tommy.
Here's our complete podcast interview with Officer Tommy Norman. Hear this guy's heart for his community and his dependence on God:
(At the bottom of the page are the social media links where you can follow Officer Tommy on his always inspiring community rounds)
Ways of touching the community with love
K-LOVE’s Richard: And how about a basketball challenge, ending with a bucket of cold water dump? Yikes.
Officer Tommy: Yeah, so Cadence is my friend and Cadence, I've known her since she was a baby since she was born. And so we had a best of seven one-verses-one, and it went to game seven. She won and we'd agreed before that game that whoever won the championship was allowed to pour a cold bucket of water and it was probably 28 degrees that day on the loser. So I lost the game! She won and her mom had the bucket ready and there you have it. And probably still had about four hours left of my shift and I dried off the best I could. But once again, that's something that's not status quo, that is something that's out of the ordinary and something that those kids really, really enjoy.
K-LOVE’s Richard: And it sounds like you are a regular part of peoples’ day on your shift. You know people, you encourage 'em, you say howdy, is that kind of right?
Officer Tommy: It is. Right. And I'll tell you this, if you're going to be successful at community policing, you have to show up. But more importantly, you have to come back. If you don't come back, then we've got a problem because how can you build that trust and that respect and break down those barriers if you don't come back?
K-LOVE’s Richard: And there are certainly more serious moments. Another post you did was in a hospital ICU with an 8-year-old and you were asking folks to offer up prayers.
Officer Tommy: Yeah. These young people that are battling cancer, and I came to know them through just my work in the community and becoming family members, as I said, an uncle. And these are individuals that are fighting. They're fighting for their lives at 8, 9, 10-years-old. And it's just absolutely heartbreaking to know that these young people out here are dealing with things that some people live an entire life don't even have to even worry about. And I really believe in prayer and through my social media platform, I ask people to pray and prayers work. And I feel like that, hey, if we're out here complaining about a sore finger or we stump our toe, you've got an 8-year-old boy that's out here sick half of his life because he's battling the beast that we call cancer. And if I can get prayers out there, that's the least I can do.
Tommy at hospital ICU with Braylon
K-LOVE's Richard: And your social media really doesn't seem to be about you as much as it seems to be about those you touch in this virtual family. When you do things like this, you encourage people, you post stories. What's in your heart when this happens?
Officer Tommy: There's no way that one person, one man, one woman, could make it in this world without the support of other people. And with my platform, it really jumped into the hundreds of thousands, now the millions of followers happened back probably in 2015, about 10 years ago. And if you have a platform where you can bless other people through prayers, through gifts, through love, then I would be probably foolish not to use my platform to bless other people.
K-LOVE's Richard: And your personal faith, tell us how you see Jesus.
Officer Tommy: Oh, I love Jesus. Jesus has saved me in so many times of my sorrow of personal mistakes, personal trials and tribulations. There are times that if I didn't have Jesus, such as when my daughter passed away - I'll go ahead and share with you that my daughter passed away November 17th, 2020. -of a drug overdose, 26 years old. My baby girl left this world. And if not for God and not for the faith I had in him, I don't think that I'll be here talking to you right now.
Tommy has plenty of love to share
To one of the SWEETEST girls EVER, and one I get to call my best friend, please join me in wishing Legaci a HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY!
Officer Tommy encouraging a local business:
You can follow Officer Tommy Norman's amazing adventures in community policing at: