North Augusta public safety officers sit down with citizens at Coffee with a Cop

By Lindsey Hodges, Aiken Standard
Original article HERE

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Some North Augusta Public Safety officers spent Thursday evening speaking with citizens, and being a barista for a while, at Starbucks.

At Coffee with a Cop, anyone who wanted to chat with officers or ask a question could sit down and hang out for a few hours.

“Interaction with the community is everything in this business,” said Public Safety Officer Billy Hultman. 

“The community has to help us so we can help the community. Without the interaction and the trust, then all we have is a complete stone barrier between ourselves and the community,” he said.

Hultman said the event offers a relaxed, casual forum for people to be able to speak with officers.

He said one man he spoke with, they talked about everything from building houses, to football, to what the guy does for a living.

Officers offered advice to those who came about a variety of options, such as how to react during a car break-in, and when and how you can protect yourself. One piece of advice Officer Chris Herndon offered was to wave at a speedy person to slow them down.

Hultman said he believes the department and the citizens of North Augusta have a mutual respect for each other. He said often in the mass media, you see a lot of negative attention for law enforcement and not the positive.

“Anytime we can do anything to show, ‘Hey we’re not just out here writing tickets, arresting people, you know ruining people’s day, stuff like that, we’re people too,’” he said.

“We want people to see the human aspect of it: hat behind every uniform and every badge in this entire country – not just here – is just another beating heart and another human being that obviously has some kind of drive to help people in any way they can.”

Hultman also took a little time behind the Starbucks counter, learning to make drinks and handing them out the drive-thru window. He gained a new respect for it, he said.

“It was funny to see the looks on some peoples faces when i popped out of the window with their drink.”