Whether your kids are in grade school or still just babies, a visit to a local police station is a fantastic outing for the whole family. Older kids can learn about the profession and have a positive experience with our brave workers in blue, while younger kids will just have so many sensory elements to take in. We were lucky enough to win a behind-the-scenes tour of our local station at a raffle. Here we are about to go in; Veronika looks so psyched for the tour, and Travis looks a bit nervous!

The first obvious draw is the chance to meet real police officers! This meant posing with the chief of police and all his medals.

Plus checking out all the computers and controls in the 9-1-1 call center.

For little kids who don’t understand what they’re seeing on the tour, there was so much to look at: computer screens, shiny medals, bold blue uniforms, and all those badges!

Bigger kids of course will understand what they’re looking at, and get to check out stuff with serious “wow” factor, like a a real policeman’s handcuffs…

…and real jail cells.

Has your family visited a local station? Please share in the comments!