Colorado Springs police officer comforts child who ran away from home

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – A Colorado Springs police officer is being praised for stepping up when a child needed him most.

A few weeks ago, the Colorado Springs Police Department received a call they never want to receive: a 9-year-old child had run away from home and was in extreme distress.

“They were contemplating self-harm and there was some type of disturbance in the home that caused them to make the decision to flee,” said CSPD Officer Craig Johnson.

Finding that child quickly and letting her know she wasn’t alone was key. Johnson was one of the officers who responded to that call.

To his relief, he soon spotted the 9-year-old boy sitting alone in a nearby school. A father of five, his thoughts immediately turned to his own children.

“I was just trying to think about how I would want a police officer or anyone – anyone whose job it was to potentially protect my children, how I would want them to behave and interact with my children. … If this was my son and this was a police officer, how would I want them to treat my son.”

So he approached the child, to be that person he would like to have in his place, if he were his son.

BODY CAMERA: “Are you okay? I’m Officer Johnson.”

“At first, that person didn’t want to talk to me and I thought she might run away. I was able to talk to them and get them to stay and talk to me,” Johnson said. “… “It was obvious that at first they did not want the help of a police officer.”

BODY CAMERA:

Johnson: “Sometimes you feel a certain way, right?”

Child: “Yes.”

And over the next 45 minutes, he and the child connected.

“I just let them know they weren’t in trouble. And I was just there to help. And that was genuine, that was my only purpose at that moment. I didn’t want it to escalate, which it can easily escalate. I started talking to them and we ended up sitting on the floor and having a good conversation. They told me what was bothering them and showed me the things they had packed to escape,” Johnson said.

BODY CAMERA: “I like you. You seem like a cool kid.

When the child started approaching Johnson, they asked if they could play on the playground.

“They said, ‘Hey, can we go play,’ and I said, ‘Will you promise me you won’t run and will you pinky promise you won’t run if we go to the playground?’ And she kept her promise.

BODY CAMERA:

Johnson (watching the 9-year-old on the monkey bars): “Yeah, you’re really good!”

Child: “I can do this in reverse!”

Johnson: “What?! Show me! Do you know how hard it is to swing back?

“They just showed me their favorite activities to do on the playground, on the swings, on the slides.”

Although Johnson was at the forefront of his call, he told me his fellow officers were just as busy behind the scenes, working to ensure a positive ending.

I asked him why it was important that only one police officer approached the 9-year-old.

“Imagine you are a child in crisis and you have several armed police officers around you, you are worried about being in trouble, you are overwhelmed. Once I developed a relationship with that child, my officers did a good job of recognizing that and not getting in the way of that relationship. But in the end, they were working very hard, talking to the parents, arranging medical services and arranging to get this person to a local facility where they could receive the appropriate mental health services.”

In the end, the child agreed to go with Johnson.

BODY CAMERA: “I’m proud of you for acknowledging how you feel and for needing help. That’s how we get help.”

“I remember when I was that age and I got mad enough at my parents that I thought, ‘I’m going to run away.’ This is such an emotionally charged situation. But Officer Johnson recognized the need and the approach that needed to be taken,” said Ira Cronin, public relations manager for the Colorado Springs Police Department. “Officer Johnson was able to realize that this was a child in crisis who knew he was in crisis and was able to use the skills he had at his disposal to relate as a person and as a parent. It’s really about Officer Johnson not being a CSPD officer, it’s about him being a person.”

BODY CAMERA: “I like talking to you! I know they will enjoy talking to you too.”

“He was in the right place at the right time. He may not have a sports ball, he may not have a teddy bear to fill that gap, but he was able to sit back, use his skills as a person and build that confidence and, again, keep the situation under control, prevent the young man in crisis worsens. I was able to keep them calm and that’s really a skill that our officers have,” Cronin said.

“Those are the calls you leave with a smile,” Johnson said. “I got into this profession, just like we all do, to help people, and we feel like there are a lot of days that there are negative endings to what we do in police work, and when you can walk away really feeling like you helped someone, that’s the best feeling. ”

Many would say Johnson went above and beyond that day.

“Officer Johnson’s chain of command dismissed that: ‘You know, we really saw some exemplary work today,’” Cronin told me.

But Johnson? He says he was simply being a Colorado Springs police officer.