Medford Police hold Spanish language coffee with a cop event

By Alexander Mesadieu, KTVL
Original article HERE

Members of the Spanish speaking community and Medford police gathered together today in the Medford library for a “Coffee With A Cop” event, or as this one was titled, Cafe y Pan.

Medford Police have held a number of Coffee With a Cop events in the past.

The events are meetings at restaurants and community gathering spots where anybody is welcome to come by and have conversations with local police officers in an informal setting. This is the first ever Spanish language exclusive Cofee With A Cop event.

For some attendees it felt special to be able to do it.

“The thing is they’re here to serve the whole community. I think reaching out to the Latino community is really important given the political climate that we’re in.” Said event attendee Annie Valtierra-Sanchez.

Dozens of people came in and out of the library to talk to the cops. Topics ranged from common misunderstandings, racial profiling, different issues with language barriers, and much more.

The Medford Police have not declared a date for the next coffee with a cop event, but they say it will likely be before the end of the year. Before today, the last Coffee with a Cop event was in February. They announce the events through the Medford Police Facebook page.