As the crew from Inverell and District Family Services (IDFS) Family Day Care filled up the stations small vestibule last Wednesday, the staff on site seemed more agitated as the room burst like a clown car with tiny bodies and infants, with sticky fingers touching the walls and pointing in wonder at the officer at the counter.

IDFS Family Day Care manager Lisa Szumowski chuckled when she described the process of packing the room with children.

“I went up first, and I said, ‘Are you ready?’ and they said, ‘Yeah, yeah’, and they kept coming in, and in and they said ‘Is that it?’ and I went , ‘No,” Lisa laughed.

“And then it was quite funny because the girls still had the children in the prams, we actually had the children going into the back where the cells are, and these prams are in there and children were jumping on the beds and it was probably really no idea what the beds and that are for.” she said. The best was saved for last when children clambered into a police car with lights flashing and all the technical gear. “The police people down there, they were all fantastic,” Lisa said.

“A big thing they pushed was a lot of parents unknowingly sort of say, ‘Only the bad people got to the police, so it sort of puts the children off going to the police if they’re in trouble,” she said.

The raft of two and three-year-olds were encouraged to dial 000 if they felt there was trouble.

Lisa said the visit was the first of their community excursions to see people working in emergency services.

“They’ve asked to see the different people, and going from the police station yesterday, they now wanted to see the fire trucks,” she said.