Police have casual conversation with citizens

By David Gough, The Courier Press
Original article HERE

In an effort to bring down barriers between regular citizens and the Chatham-Kent Police Service, an event was held where a number of police officers met and talked with people at the McDonald’s on McNaughton Avenue in Wallaceburg on March 20 for a couple hours in the morning.

The police were clear that they had no agenda or speeches, just a chance to have a casual conversation with a police officer over a cup of coffee.

“Today was excellent. We really had to have a really good turnout here in Wallaceburg,” said Chatham-Kent police public information officer Renee Cowell.

She said the conversations are a good way for police to hear what the police are doing right and also to hear about what the local police force can be doing better.

A previous Coffee with a Cop event was held in Chatham earlier this year. Cowell said they plan to move the event around the municipality.

“The goal really here is to meet people from our local communities and we want to interact with them and maybe see what are some local issues that we should be focusing on.”

During the informal conversations in Wallaceburg, Cowell said police heard about traffic concerns, as well as problems with youths checking for unlocked car doors so they can steal things from cars.

“A lot of times people don’t think they need to call us but these are incidents that we really do need to know about so we can later better direct our patrols,” Cowell said.