Donuts are a main player in this year’s Ames and Iowa State Police Departments’ Spring Campaign pushing a message of “donut disrespect.”

The donutmobile made its appearance on campus attracting Iowa State community members to the treats on board. Anthony Greiter of the Iowa State Police Department and Eric Snyder of the Ames Police Department, community outreach officers, were spotted on campus passing out donuts on foot. 

“We want people to remember to be respectful of one another, treat each other with respect, and that can really bring us back together as a community and reunite a lot of people,” Greiter said. “We’re doing that with donuts because who doesn’t like donuts? And there’s a great play on donuts and cops.” 

Grieter said that the Spring Campaign is a tradition that spans at least the past 10 to 15 years. Starting on April 1 to correspond with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a larger event launches the campaign. 

This year may have a donut theme, but Greiter said the initiative has long reaching arms covering a variety of topics. 

The campaign gives the police of Ames and Iowa State an opportunity to interact with the community.

“It’s fantastic to get out and actually talk to people,” Snyder said. “You can’t serve a community unless you’re talking to the community, unless you’re part of the community. If I sat behind my desk all day or we sat behind the steering wheel of a squad car, you don’t get to know your community.” 

Snyder recalls the Ames and ISU PD collaborating on this campaign as far back as he remembers. 

“Our police department combines with Ames Police Department to work on the Spring Campaign to show not only that we are a unified community and law enforcement is part of the community, but our two law enforcement agencies in this town work very closely and both have the same goals in mind,” Greiter said. 

For the Ames Police specifically, it gives them a chance to build a stronger relationship with the campus as opposed to the ISU Police, who works with the campus community on a regular basis. 

Snyder said that this is important to keep this up as new freshman and transfer students enroll. 

Also, as Snyder and Greiter regularly do outreach, this campaign gives other officers the platform to get to know the community they serve. 

“Most of our officers are doing outreach, it’s just behind closed doors, after hours when students are in their residence halls or in the greek houses, so it’s not out on campus in public during the day most of the time,” Greiter said. “But this gives all of us an opportunity to come out in large force and provide happiness through donuts.”

The campaign ends at the same time as finals week, capping off at over a month. 

“So we’re using donuts to spread a message of respect, so donut disrespect is the message,” Snyder said. “Donut hate, donut harass, donut discriminate. We want people to respect each other. If we all do that, things go well in the community.”