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Chief: Glen Ridge police friendliest in Essex
By Matt Kadosh, NorthJersey.com
Original article HERE
As some law enforcement agencies across the nation face flak for policing practices, departments in Essex County are emphasizing face-to-face interactions with the residents they serve.
Coffee with a Cop, a national initiative launched in California in 2011, on Wednesday evening helped Glen Ridge borough residents get better acquainted with their local police officers and firefighters.
The meet-and-greet followed recent Coffee with a Cop gatherings held in the surrounding towns of Belleville, Bloomfield, Montclair and Nutley.
Glen Ridge has been holding the gatherings for around two-and-a-half years, and 76-year-old resident Jim Landers has frequented them.
“They’re just a good group of people who help keep the town safe,” Landers said of his local police as residents, firefighters and officers sipped coffee and posed for photographs around a table in the back of the Bloomfield Avenue Starbucks.
Glen Ridge Detective Sgt. Daniel Manley said such gatherings allow officers to develop relationships with community members in nonemergency situations, which helps officers’ perform their jobs more efficiently when time is of the essence.
“It’s key for us to meet community members before that emergency situation,” Manley said.
The gathering at Starbucks drew around 50 residents. Manley said Glen Ridge’s last Coffee with a Cop, held at Police Headquarters, drew some 80 people.
The meet-and-greet at Starbucks brought a new element into the mix: Montclair firefighters, who serve Glen Ridge.
Montclair fire Lt. Bill Cummings, who was among the firefighters in attendance, said the department’s most recent calls to Glen Ridge have involved the borough’s signature gas-lamp streetlights.
“We had a couple of lamp posts that lit up recently,” noted Cummings.
During the most recent snowstorm, he said, Glen Ridge used a Montclair fire engine to get through snowy streets, and his crew was stationed in an old firehouse located next to Glen Ridge Police Headquarters.
“We rode out of the old firehouse on Herman Street,” Cummings recalled.
Glen Ridge Police Chief Sheila Byron-Lagattuta, who was in attendance, said her department is holding the police meet-and-greets in various locations so officers can reach new crowds.
The next Coffee with a Cop in Glen Ridge, expected before summer, will feature an annual bicycle registration,Byron-Lagattuta said.
A specific date has not been set for it, she said, but the annual event to be held at the local library will also feature safety tips for children. Registering the bicycles with police, Byron-Lagattuta said, allows law enforcement to better identify stolen bikes.
While Coffee with a Cop provides a designated time and place for police to chat with the residents they serve, Lagattuta said that Glen Ridge’s police officers are always available for conversations.
“I like to say we have the friendliest police department in Essex County,” she said. “Our officers are always willing to stop to talk.”
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