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Coffee with a Cop: Local police serve the community
By Caitlyn M. May, Gazette-Times
Original article HERE
Officer Alex Johnson spent Wednesday morning popping in and out of the drive-thru window at Human Bean chatting up customers and taking coffee orders.
It wasn’t a career change for Johnson, who has been with the Albany Police Department for 13 years, but an effort to connect with the community he serves.
Wednesday was National Coffee with a Cop Day—an event that originated in California in 2011 after the Hawthorne Police Department held casual conversations with community members. Traditionally, police officers visit a local coffee shop, sit at a table and wait for residents to show up and chat. Wednesday morning in Albany, though, they decided to make a switch.
“We wanted to shake it up,” said Laura Hawkins, a crime prevention specialist with APD. “We thought they could talk to more people if they were serving them.”
Officers took turns in the window taking orders and if customers preferred a longer chat, local Human Bean owners Jay and Paula Reab provided a pop-up shop opposite the drive-thru lane. Visitors were invited to visit the tent, grab a cup of coffee or a baked treat and chat with local officers. Similar events were held around the Willamette Valley, including Lebanon and Corvallis.
“It’s great for the community,” Jay Reab said. “It’s great for citizens to come out and get to know some officers.”
Officer Morgan Fitzgerald worked the line of cars taking orders for Johnson—something she’s had practice at. Before joining APD, Fitzgerald worked at a Human Bean in Klamath Falls.
“It was all the same guys so you couldn’t really mess up their drinks,” she said.
There were no complaints of messed up drinks Wednesday morning and Reab said that while the time period—between 8 and 10 a.m.—is usually a busy time, there were more cars than usual in the drive thru.
“It’s their normal routine to come here,” he said of some customers. “These people may not have come to another sit down event somewhere else.”
Hawkins said the event was successful with administrative officers and detectives who usually spend time behind a desk able to get out into the community.
“This is the human side of cops,” she said. “Something people need to see.”
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