AUBURN - In an effort to promote safety, members of the Auburn Police Department on Saturday set up shop where they would get a bit more visibility than at the police station.

Sheryl Walker, community involvement coordinator for Auburn's Wal-Mart store, said that she has been working with the APD to hold these kinds of educational programs at least once a year for the past several years.

“We've done this quite a few times,” Walker said. “We wanted to do an event to help promote safety in the community and also make it kind of a fun day that people could learn something and get involved in.”

The police had several tables set up throughout the store, with information on things like how to start a neighborhood watch program, bicycle safety and information on gun safety along with free gun locks.

Sgt. Greg Dann, who is in charge of community police crime prevention, said that Walker initially approached him about doing a child safety seat inspection, but that the idea quickly evolved into much more.

“Basically, this is a safety day,” Dann said. “This is a great opportunity to be able to provide all this information to people all at once, whether it is a neighborhood watch or bike safety people can find out about all of it right here in one place.”

The information available promoted things like wearing proper equipment like pads and helmets while riding a bicycle as well as obeying traffic rules, and making sure firearms are equipped with gun locks and stored in a locked cabinet.

Some of these programs have been made possible through federal programs like Project Child Safe, which provides free gun locks for the police department to distribute.

Through another grant, the department is able to offer child safety seat inspections as well as provide people with new seats free of charge, when necessary.

“We do the safety checks,” Dann said. We make sure the seat is properly installed and if it is unacceptable we are able, through this grant, to give people a new seat and install it in their vehicle for them and make sure it fits properly and everything.” While officers handed out literature on bike safety and neighborhood watches, the free gun locks were quickly taken by visitors and the child safety seat inspection drew a great number of visitors throughout the day.

Todd and Kathy Kelsey of Auburn, along with their 16-month-old daughter, Maria, brought both their vehicles to be inspected. “It just makes me feel safer,” Kathy said. “They inspect and adjust everything and you just know that it is all in there the right way and that everything is safe. Just knowing that makes me feel safer with my daughter in the car.”

Throughout the summer, Walker said the store will host other safety programs with the Auburn Fire Department and the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office.

“We are really grateful to these organizations,” Walker said. “We are grateful for them working with us to make this possible and to provide this information and we are happy to be able to offer it to the community and give people a place to learn about things like this.”