Programs :: Santa Cop
Santa Cop
Request for Assistance Background Media Articles
Request for Assistance
We would like to help the men and women in blue, our own Tucson Police Department patrol officers, this year with a great project… SANTA COP. TPD officers respond day after day to domestic violence calls, assist in collisions on our streets, and numerous other calls for help from Tucsonans. Over 70% of these calls involve children who are experiencing trauma from these situations. Our police officers have been using their own money to purchase toys, which they carry in their patrol cars to help alleviate the stress the children feel in these situations. They have found that a new toy can bring a small bit of comfort at the time.
The Tucson Police Foundation are now helping these patrol officers. We are requesting the donation of a new unwrapped toy for this holiday season. Please call the TPF Office at 207-2878 to make arrangements to either make a cash donation, provide some toys, or be a toy drop off location. Checks can also be sent to the office at 3900 E. Timrod St., Tucson 85711 with a notation of Santa Cop. The Tucson Police Foundation, a 501 c-3 non-profit organization that supports TPD community initiatives, would like to thank you in advance for your generosity.
Program Background
The Santa Cop program was started in 2004 at the Tucson Police Westside substation by a small group of officers, led by Tom Rizzi. The program consisted of officers buying toys at Christmas time so they could hand out toys to children while they were on patrol. Tucson Police officers witness heart wrenching and difficult situations children are placed in. These children often fall through the cracks and a toy given by officers is sometimes the only toy a child will see Christmas morning.
The program grew every year and in 2007 the program was adopted by the Tucson Police Foundation. The program went city-wide and toys were placed in every patrol vehicle in the city. Over 280 police cars carried over 900 toys in their trunks in December of 2007. The plans for 2008 are even larger. The Foundation has set a goal of 2,000 toys for this holiday season.
Media Articles
Tom Rizzi grew up admiring his father, a Chicago-area police officer who worked in the projects.
"There are some people that have nothing," Rizzi said his father told him. "You have everything. Remember that."
Then, 11 years ago, Rizzi became a police officer. He also started buying toys at the dollar store to give to kids on his beat around the holidays.
When he started working for the Tucson Police Department more than three years ago, he brought the idea with him.
It is no longer a small, personal project - $100 worth of dollar store toys - it is a departmentwide operation.
TPD announced "Santa Cop" this year, inspired by Rizzi.
Starting Wednesday, each of the 270 or so patrol cars assigned to a regional operations division will have two gifts in the trunk, wrapped and labeled with a gender and age range, said Mike Feder, executive director of the Tucson Police Foundation.
The 750 toys the department has collected for the project were donated by the foundation, local credit unions, stores and individuals, he said.
The toys, which range from Beanie Babies to matchbox cars, are no longer from the dollar store. They come from Big Lots and KB Toys, which contributed to the project, and other local stores, Rizzi said.
The upgrade began after Rizzi went to a house on a domestic violence call and saw a girl playing with a doll he had given her the last time he was at the house, also responding to a domestic violence call.
"The doll was naked and had lost a foot," he said. "She said Santa hadn't come that year. It occurred to me that this could be the only toy they get."
Officers have full discretion about who gets the toys, Rizzi said.