Coffee with A Cop was launched in Hawthorne, California in 2011 when Officers from the Hawthorne Police Department were looking for ways to interact more successfully with the citizens they served each day.
Community policing has long been considered a framework for establishing trust between the community and the police. However, over time the character and composition of our nation’s communities have changed due to shifting demographics, more commuters, and the introduction of different communication methods such as websites and social media.
The Hawthorne Police Department hit upon a simple plan to break through the barriers that have been built over the years–with a cup of “coffee”. Other police departments have adopted this idea and created some of their own successful events, including coffee with a cop, but expanding on the idea to include ice cream, pizza, tacos, etc. to bring officers and the community together. The key to Coffee with a Cop’s growing success is that it opens the door for interactions outside of the crisis situations that typically bring law enforcement officers and community members together.
Coffee with a Cop events are now held in all 50 states and is one of the most successful community oriented policing programs across the country. The program has also expanded to outside the Unites States to Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Latin America. (CoffeewithaCop.com, February 2020)
The Beaumont Police Department launched its own Coffee with a Cop program modeled after Hawthorne PD in October of 2018. Since 2018, the department has held quarterly events inviting citizens, business owners and the like to meet up with officers in a casual setting meant to foster relationships and build community between officers and our citizens.
The next Coffee with a Cop event will be held in April 2020, at La Michoacana, located at 770 E. 6
th
Street, Ste. G, in the City of Beaumont. The dates and times are TBA, check out Beaumont Police Department on Facebook, Nextdoor, Instagram and Twitter for further information on this and future events.
