Tip-a-Cop to return tonight

MOSES LAKE — Why yes, those will be uniformed officers delivering burgers and wiping down tables during the Tip-a-Cop event from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. tonight at Rock Top Burgers & Brew, 930 N. Stratford Road.

Deputies from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and Moses Lake Police Department officers will work the restaurant floor for two hours, handing out menus and delivering meals. The tips they earn go to the Shop With A Cop program sponsored by each department. Rock Top employees make a donation, as well as sponsoring the event.

The restaurant also will sponsor a visit from Santa, who will be available for pictures.

Tip-a-Cop traditionally features contests — there was an epic Battle of the Burgers in 2019 — and a good-natured back and forth between officers from different agencies.

This will be the fourth year for Tip-a-Cop, after a year off for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Diners will be asked to follow masking and social distancing guidelines.

The Shop With A Cop program teams up children with officers from participating departments for an evening of Christmas shopping for their family and friends. Law enforcement agencies around the Basin have had Shop With A Cop programs for about a decade or more.

Some agencies paused it in 2020 in light of the pandemic, while others modified it. For the GCSO and MLPD, it’s happening this year. Kids will go shopping sometime in mid-December, said GSCO public information officer Kyle Foreman.

Kids get a gift card from the sponsoring agency and a police officer, or sometimes a firefighter, or two or more officers or firefighters, as shopping buddies. The kids get pizza for dinner before they go shopping, and usually there’s a visit from Santa, too.

The GCSO and MLPD Shop With A Cop programs are supported with donations from the community and fundraisers sponsored by the agencies.