Garber Hosts Coffee with a Cop

By Cass Rains, Enid News & Eagle
Original article HERE

Garber hosts Coffee with a Cop

Teacups & Treasures played host Saturday to Garfield County Sheriff’s Office deputies assigned to serve and protect the northwest Oklahoma Community.

Coffee with a Cop was held from 10 a.m. until noon, with dozens of Garber residents stopping in to meet Deputy Kyle Pierce and Deputy Matt Ousley.

The two are tasked with patrolling Garber as part of the town’s contract with the sheriff’s office. Saturday’s events, organized by local business owners, gave residents a chance to mingle with their local law enforcement officers.

Paul Grimes, who owns Freedom Defender Firearms in downtown Garber with his wife Lisa, said he wanted the community to have a chance to meet with the deputies.

“I’m real pro police officer, or pro law enforcement,” Grimes said. “With the sheriff’s department being our local law enforcement I wanted people to get to introduce themselves to the officers and get to know them better on a personal basis.”

Grimes also said smaller towns should know their local law enforcement to prevent and reduce crime.

“That communication is needed in small towns to know their law enforcement officer and gain respect for them and vice versa,” he said. “And to let the officers know what we would like to happen in our town. They were really open to listening. I think we’ve got some good plans that will work.”

Sheriff Jerry Niles said the relationship between his office and the town of Garber has had success with having a deputy contracted to patrol the town.

“We’ve had four deputies in rotation and we’ve had pretty good luck with all of them,” Niles said. “They bring different experiences and different focuses to the job.”

Pierce and Ousley spent Saturday morning drinking coffee with residents and handing out business cards.

“It’s been good. There’s a lot of good people,” Pierce said. “Some of these guys I’ve never talked to before.”

“It’s nice to get feedback form the community, to see what they’d like to happen in the community,” Ousley said. “That’s been my overall experience. There are a lot of good people here.”

The sheriff’s office contract with the town requires deputies to spend at five days for a total of 40 hours in the town limits.

“They provide a vehicle and they pay a salary and we dedicate our time to just this community,” Ousley explained.

Pierce and Ousley said the deputies determine which days to patrol and what hours, but said they try to vary it.

“It also cuts down on response time if there is an emergency,” Peirce said. “This way they don’t have to wait for someone to come from somewhere else in the county.”

He said deputies patrolling Garber can also respond to other emergencies, such as wrecks, that occur nearby.

“Since we’ve taken over, crime has dropped dramatically,” Ousely said. Pierce said he’s seen a reduction in crime, as well.

Ousely said meeting the people he’s tasked to protect makes his job easier.

“They feel more comfortable talking to us when something happens,” he said. “For a long time, people wouldn’t call because they didn’t have a dedicated officer.”

“I think I’ll start coming in now,” Pierce said of the tearoom and antiques store. “We’re happy to be out here. Don’t be scared of us. Come talk to us. The more direction we have, the better it is for the time we spend here.

“If they need anything they can get a message to us by calling the sheriff’s office,” he said. “We want to be proactive. We want be in good with the community.”