July 23, 2018

To jumpstart community dialog, Danville law enforcement officers host ‘Coffee With a Cop’

By James Whitlow, GoDanRiver.com
Original article HERE

Coffee with a Cop In the mostly-empty Links Coffee House and Café on Craghead Street, Danville Police Chief Scott Booth called across the restaurant to a patron, asking if she wanted to talk about issues.

And when Ann Richardson moved across the coffeehouse and took a seat next to Booth, the conversation took off.

Officers from Danville’s police and sheriff departments came to the café for the city’s second “Coffee With a Cop” event at 8 a.m. Friday.

Richardson, 50, had decided to check out the event with some friends who work in the city. After talking with Booth about neighborhoods, local issues and social media, she said she was happy to get to chat with law enforcement.

“I have lived here all my life and never seen anything like this before,” Richardson said. “It is nice to put a name with a face when you are in a small town.”

In all, half a dozen people took the opportunity to chat with either Booth or Danville Sheriff Michael Mondul over coffee Friday morning.

Coffee With a Cop is a national program developed by police officers in Hawthorne, California, to reach out to the community they serve. What began as a local outreach program in 2011 has since spread across all 50 states and overseas to Europe, Australia and Africa, according to the program’s website.

Booth, who takes his coffee with “lots of cream and lots of artificial sweetener,” said the event is valuable for building trust and showing communities officers are listening to their concerns.

“A lot of times, you will find people who are apprehensive about calling the police and sharing their problems,” he said. “This gives another venue where they can come out and talk about what’s going on in their neighborhood.”

Capt. Tommy Merricks, who drinks coffee “hot and black,” said the event is designed to show the people under the uniforms, and allow law enforcement to build trust.

“The object is to get in the community and be accessible,” he said. “The whole premise behind it is to start a discussion.”