October 5, 2018

Coos Bay hosts Coffee with a Cop

By Nicholas A. Johnson, The World
Original article HERE

Alongside the Downtown Coos Bay Farmers’ Market this past Wednesday, So it Goes Coffeehouse hosted a Coffee with a Cop event with Coos Bay Police Department.

Five CBPD officers met with citizens to interact with their community in a more relaxed setting.

“We’re just here drinking coffee and talking with folks who want to come up and talk with us,” said Captain Chris Chapanar with CBPD. “We don’t have any agenda. It’s just an open forum opportunity for people to sit down and either say hi or bring up a situation or concern.”

Chapanar said he enjoys being able to sit back and listen to what the community has to say.

“We get so conditioned to respond to calls and respond to in-progress situations that this is a really cool shift where we can sit back and not be responding to something. Just sit back and listen to what people have to talk about,” Chapanar said.

One of the reoccurring topics Chapanar noticed was that community members are worried about homelessness. Other things community members brought up involved traffic inquires.

“There’s a lot of people bringing up some of our community issues, like homelessness. Meeting people and learning where they live in our community is great. I heard of a traffic complaint in one of the districts in Coos Bay,” Chapanar said.

Some folks who came out just wanted to say hello and thank local officers for work they do in the community.

“We’ve had a lot of people who just come up and thank law enforcement for being in the community,” he said.

Coffee with a Cop is a national campaign that communities all over the country participated in on Wednesday. However, Coos Bay tries to have a Coffee with a Cop event every few months.