Coffee With A Cop program answers questions from curious minds

By KLKN
Original article HERE

News, Weather and Sports for Lincoln, NE; KLKNTV.com

Coffee With A Cop first started in Southern California with the Hawthorne Police Department. Since March of 2011, cops around the nation have been having casual conversations with their communities.

Tim Abele, an officer for the Lincoln Police department for over 20 years, participates in the Coffee With A Cop program. The nationwide program allows community members to sit down with local law enforcement to ask questions or talk about community issues.

“Coffee with a cop gives us that opportunity to come together and bridge some gaps,” Abele says.

Nine–year–old Aubrey Kellogg, a fourth grader at Beattie Elementary, was curious about Abele and had some questions for him. Although she was shy at first, it didn’t take long for her to warm up.

“I just thought it was going to be cool. at first I was pretty nervous and scared but once I talked to him like I got the confidence and it wasn’t really that scary it was actually pretty fun,” Kellogg says.

Aubrey’s curiostiy led to 40 minutes of conversation. The pair asked each other questions about work and school, and they learned new things about each other. Officer Abele says that’s what this program is all about.

“It’s a great interaction to have so that it puts a face instead of a badge and uniform, so there’s actually a person behind the badge and the uniform,” Abele says.

Aubrey says her interaction with Officer Abele has changed her opinion about cops for the better.

“At first I was really scared and I thought cops were super scary, they’re not nice or anything, but now that I talked to him, they’re actually pretty nice, they’re funny, they’re all kinds of things…pretty good,” Aubrey says.

Abele says the conversations allow him to apply things he learns from the community into his daily work.

National Coffee With A Cop Day is coming up in October. For more information you can check out their Facebook page..