How About Putting Cops’ Good Deeds on Body Cams?

 Too bad the officers’ body cameras weren’t rolling recently in Duluth. It might not have been the sort of gritty scene that makes it on the evening news or reality TV shows like “Cops.” But the above-and-beyond response of the Duluth P.D. and St. Louis County deputies to an elderly man affected by a typical accident reveals another side of policing captured by the Duluth News Tribune that needs to be seen more often.
The incident happened when Duluth resident Wade Oyabu’s bike got totaled in an accident through no fault of his own. It was collateral damage when a vehicle ran into a city bus carrying Wade’s used bike on the rack in front.

The handlebars were flattened, the pedals were ruined, the sprocket broke.

“It was messed up,” said Sgt. Gayle Holton of the Duluth Police Department.

In the aftermath, officer Paige Grenier was able to secure donations from fellow Duluth police officers, St. Louis County deputies and dispatchers to buy Oyabu a new bike — a Kent Terra 2.6 21 speed. They were able to deliver it to Lakeside Manor Assisted Living on London Road, where he was a resident, a few hours later.

Officer Grenier said Oyabu volunteered to help her gather information at the accident scene. But it wasn’t until she learned where he lived that she knew from a recent emergency response that she wanted to do more.

Grenier ended up driving Oyabu home. When she realized where he lived, she said, she knew she wanted to do something to help him. Grenier had recently been called to a death at the assisted living facility and knew the mood around the home was somber.

“They had lost one of their own,” she said.

Oyabu uses his bicycle to get to the grocery store, the Duluth Public Library and other downtown destinations. When the staff at Lakeside Manor heard about Oyabu’s busted bike, “They said it was his form of freedom,” Grenier recalled.

Oyabu was stunned to see police officers bringing him a new replacement bike just hours after the incident.

“Everything was surreal,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what the police officers did for me. What they did touched me very deeply.”

He didn’t immediately ride it, rather he pushed it into a storage shed and locked it up.

“He seemed emotional about the day,” Holton said.

Later that night, Oyabu took it on a trail to SuperAmerica.

“I said ‘This is wonderful,'” Oyabu recalled.

The Duluth Police Department has had body cameras in place since 2014. Perhaps the rules should be revised to make it mandatory to also film the random acts of kindness that occur every day.