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Chesapeake students have “Coffee with a Cop” to help build positive relationships with police
By Arleen Spenceley, The Virginian-Pilot
Original article HERE
Police officers congregated at Grassfield High School last week, where they built what they hope will have a lasting impact on the students: relationships.
About 50 members of law enforcement from the Chesapeake Police Department participated in the event, called Coffee with a Cop. It was designed to provide the police and the students with a chance to have positive encounters with each other.
Educators “get to see students all the time,” said Melvin Queen, Grassfield’s technical support specialist, who organized the event. “Police officers don’t get that opportunity, unless it’s a bad situation.”
But if it’s only under negative circumstances that officers and teenagers interact, their perceptions of each other will be skewed, Queen said. That bothers him – so he decided to try and find a way to improve those encounters.
When he pitched the idea for the event, the police officials liked it.
“We thought this would be a perfect opportunity to communicate with teenagers in a relaxed setting, (with) no enforcement going on,” said Maj. Tracy Branch. “When people relax, they tend to talk more. We can find out what’s important to them.”
Grassfield’s principal, Mike Perez, liked the idea, too.
“What better way to build relationships between students and police than bring (the police) here?” Perez said.
So he agreed to cover the cost of 10 boxes of coffee and 15 dozen doughnuts for the Oct. 5 event, which was free, and open to students and faculty.
“I like to think it was a success,” Queen said.
The students mingled with officers and captains, negotiators and detectives. They poured each other’s coffee and passed each other doughnuts. They asked and answered each other’s questions.
And that’s important, said Grassfield senior Todd Liebig.
“It looks a lot like they’re against us, with everything (we see) in the media,” said Liebig, 17. “But they’re really just here to protect us.”
And it’s important to the officers who participated in the event that the students understand that.
“It’s a positive interaction that they can have while they’re still young and forming opinions of police officers,” said Officer Sarah Peedin. “Police officers are human, too. We’re approachable and we’re here to help.”
Queen said students who know that will interact more easily with law enforcement officials in crisis situations.
“Their jobs and the jobs of educators are very similar,” Queen said. “Your students are more likely to work with you if they feel a positive connection. I think the police are the same way.”
Perez said Grassfield will host Coffee with a Cop once or twice a year, and Officer Peedin said the Police Department aims to arrange to replicate the event at all of Chesapeake’s high schools.
And the students like that idea.
“It’s really good that we get to see this side of the cops,” Liebig said. “And that they get to see this side of us.”
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