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Officers share coffee with community members
By Garrett Kroeger, Laredo Morning Times
Original article HERE
If someone decided to stop by the McDonald’s located at 2101 Saunders Street between 8-10 a.m. this past Saturday, they were greeted by more than a friendly smile donning a hat with golden arches on it. They were also met by officers of the Laredo Police Department, who were hosting their monthly Coffee with a Cop event at the location.
“What it really is is us wanting to reach out to our community in a different way,” officer Gina Gonzales said. “Obviously, we get responsive calls every day. When people are calling us, they are calling us because they are in distress or are going through something difficult. It’s typically not under the best circumstance.
“We want them to meet the officers that serve their community.”
The police department has teamed with all the McDonald’s in town to put on this monthly event for almost three years now. However, there was a few months during that period the event did not happen.
The goal is to show members of the community that the officers who protect and serve are just more than a badge. They are just like everyone else — human.
“We just want to talk to them in a casual, comfortable setting when they aren’t going through something,” Gonzales said. “So, they can get to know us outside of us making arrests or pulling someone over.
“To get to know us on positive terms. That’s what we want. We want to make sure we are making ourselves available to them and that they know we are out here not just to protect, but that we are more than what we are doing every day.”
Another reason why the police department holds these types of events is so that children are comfortable coming up to officers no matter the situation.
“We have noticed that kids sometime shy away from officers,” Gonzales said. “We just want to make sure that they know that we are out here, and they can come talk to us about anything.”
Next month’s event has yet to be finalized. However, Gonzales was adamant that it won’t be happening at the Saunders’ location as the department wants to change the location every month.
“We want to give everyone in the community a chance to meet the officers that protect and serve them,” Gonzales said. “We don’t want to force people to come to us. We want to come to them.”
And when the next event occurs, officers are ready to discuss which coffee is the best.
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