Recently, the Franklin Police Department showed that it’s just as willing and able to be community partners as it is to be law enforcers. The local office was contacted by a national organization to help make a dream come true for Aaron, a 6-year-old leukemia survivor from California who had received a transplant at Duke University in North Carolina.

Team Aaron asked Sgt. Scott Halverson of the FPD if the members would be willing to contribute badges, coins and patches to the young collector. Naturally, the officer, chief Phillip Hardison and the rest of the department were moved to participate. To his credit, Halverson went one step further in getting other Virginia departments and agencies involved.

Earlier this month, he and the chief went to Duke and presented the collection, which included a Franklin Police polo shirt made just for the youngster.

This, to us, is a perfect example of how local law enforcement is made up of men and women who care about other people near and far. We’re confident in writing that if the request had been for somebody in Franklin, the police would have been no less responsive.

It’s all to easy for some residents to disparage the department because the officers dare to do their jobs. But we know from past reports that the FPD is as much about helping people on a personal level as it is catching criminals or writing speeding tickets.