A 10-year-old girl contacted police with a maths emergency. It went hopelessly wrong.

We all know that being a kid can be pretty tough sometimes. We’ve all been there.

When you’re a kid, sometimes the smallest problems can seem huge. Take a tricky maths problem, for example.

Sometimes, when a there’s no one else around that you trust enough to help you with your homework, you have no choice but to turn to your local police department.

Such was the case for 10-year-old Lena Draper, who was in such a pickle about her homework that she decided to ask the police to help her solve the crime equation.

The adorable conversation has now been shared on the Love What Matters Facebook page.

"I'm having trouble with my homework, can you help me?" Lena wrote to the Marion Police Department via Facebook messenger.

Instead of ignoring her request or calling for backup, Ohio officer Lieutenant B.J. Gruber decided to tackle the problem head on.

"What's up?" he wrote, before Lena said she was stuck on the problem "(8+29)x15".

"Do the numbers in the parenthesis first so in essence it would be 37×15," he responded.

But it wasn't 'case closed' just yet on Lena's homework dilemma.

"Ok now if I had this (90+27)+(29+15)x2...Which one would I do first...Because you have to do the parenthesis first," Lena wrote.

Listen: The Parent Code presents...The great homework argument.

This is where things got...a little tricky.

"Take the answer from the first parenthesis plus the answer from the second parenthesis and multiply that answer times two. Work left to right doing the work inside the parenthesis first," Lieutenant Gruber responded, which would have been fine, had he not been completely wrong.

(For those playing along at home: you have to add the numbers in the second parenthesis and multiply by two before adding them to the digit in the first set of parenthesis.)

Luckily, it's the thought that counts and Lena's mother Molly was more than happy to share the exchange to show just how committed to the community her local police department are.

"Especially since the answer was wrong, it was very nice for Molly to acknowledge our attempt to help her daughter with some math homework!" the Marion, Ohio Police Department wrote on Facebook as the post went viral.

"We do aim to be a full service police department after all. Have to say this is the first time we have been asked by a young Facebook follower to help with homework through messenger but hey, we SERVE and protect. Maybe should have mentioned that History was my favorite subject before answering. Well, we know now!"

Stay tuned for the next episode of Law & Order: Special Homework Unit...