Middleton Police host ‘Coffee with a Cop’

By Wendall Waters, Wicked Local
Original article HERE

Middleton Police Chief James DiGianvittorio spent an afternoon serving coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts. As he prepared a cup for a regular who stopped reading his paper to join the conversation, DiGianvittorio explained how this particular Coffee with a Cop event came about.

Middleton Police Chief James DiGianvittorio spent an afternoon last week serving coffee at the Dunkin’ Donuts at 260 South Main St. As he prepared a cup for a regular who stopped reading his paper to join the conversation, DiGianvittorio explained how this particular Coffee with a Cop event came about.

Usually, there is a national community policing week, but one wasn’t declared this year, DiGianvittorio said. So, the Mass. Chiefs of Police Association, of which he is president, decided to ask Gov. Charlie Baker to make a proclamation. Baker declared Oct. 2-8, 2017 as Mass. Community Policing Week.

He also proclaimed Wednesday, Oct. 4 as Coffee with a Cop Day, which brings us back to DiGianvittorio serving coffee at the “Dunkies.”

The chief arrived with Sgt. David Arathuzik in the department’s vintage police car, aptly named after the 1960s TV sitcom “Car 54, Where are you?” He said the goals of Community Policing Week are to get officers out into the community and to let the people they serve know the Police Department is there to help.

“We’re trying to promote community policing throughout the state,” DiGianvittorio said. “Trying to get police more aware of their communities.”

Coffee with a Cop gives officers a chance to sit down with local residents and find out what matters to them. It also let’s police do some old fashioned networking, getting to know the people and organizations in the communities they serve.

“Most of the time,” Digianvittorio said, “we are dealing with people in stressful situations.”