‘Cone With A Cop’ Draws Families To Meet Ashland Police

By Jesse Smith, WFMD
Original article HERE

In October, the Ashland Division of Police held “Coffee With A Cop,” an event that allowed everyone in the community to interact with those who protect and serve within Ashland. However, the event was held early in the morning and didn’t interest many of Ashland’s younger citizens, leading the department to retool the event for all ages.

“We received some input about how there weren’t enough programs for the kids,” said David Marcelli, Chief of the Ashland Police Division. “We brainstormed and came up with ‘Cones With A Cop’ to attract children. If children grow up seeing police officers as just members of the community and friends, or someone that they can trust, that carries into adolescence and into adulthood. That’s what we’re hoping to foster with these types of programs.”

Matt Miller, Mayor of the Great City of Ashland, loves the idea and hopes it will continue for years to come.

“Right now in the city of Ashland, we have hired so many new officers. For the longest time, we all knew the officers by name and by face, but at this point, there’s a changing of the guard,” Miller explained. “We think it’s important that people know officers by name so that they know how to communicate and have a relationship with them, even before they might need them in the event of an emergency.”

The event was held at Family Pools and Spas on Claremont Avenue, and lasted for several hours as families came for ice cream, root beer floats, and to interact with several police officers and K9 officers. Mayor Miller said that while looking for a place to hold “Cone With A Cop”, there were more businesses offering to host the event than even he expected.

“Here in our community, the police have a very positive reputation,” Miller said. “They have earned that respect over the years, and so have our firefighters as well. Any time we seek to do a community event, quite honestly, we have so many volunteer to host us, it’s hard to pick and choose.”