Oregon police department invites people to play ‘Hide & Seek With a Cop.’ The response was swift

From the article:

If the officers are not uniformed or armed, it defeats the goal of helping community members overcome fear of interacting with officers as they are, Mattson said.

I get the logic, but it seems like there would be a better way to go about this. My primary concern would be if we’re doing this event and some kind of loud noise happens (like a gunshot/acorn). That seems like a recipe for disaster.