Relationships perk up at Coffee With A Cop
Oct 5, 2022
Lakeville Police Captain Sean Joyce speaks with a resident during Coffee With A Cop at Dunkin’ Donuts in Lakeville. Photos by: Rusty Gorelick
Kylie Silva speaks with Patrol Officer Emiliann Melo.
Left to right: Police Chief Matt Perkins, School Resource Officer Valerie Bartholomew, Police Captain Sean Joyce, Patrol Officer Emiliann Melo, Patrol Officer Adam Swift, and Administrative Assistant Kristen Campbell at Coffee With A Cop.
LAKEVILLE — The Lakeville Police Department took over the local Dunkin’ Donuts on Wednesday, Oct. 5 to host Coffee With A Cop and brew up some new friendships.
The initiative aims to break down barriers between officers and the communities they serve. This was the first Coffee With A Cop in Lakeville since the Covid pandemic began.
“It’s part of community policing,” said Lakeville Police Department Chief Matt Perkins. “Members of the community can just talk to us. There’s no agenda. It’s a natural environment, over a cup of coffee, where you can talk about what the community is facing.”
Perkins attended the event with patrol officers and the school resource officer.
Officers paid for customers’ drinks of choice and provided pastries for people to take. They brought resources and gifts to hand out, including Frisbees, flashlights, gun safety locks and stress balls, all advertising the police department.
Lakeville resident Glenn Chistolini said these events are good because “the public gets to know who their police officers are.”
“It’s a great way to connect with everybody,” said attendee Kylie Silva. “I think it adds a sense of safety because you know who is protecting you.”
Coffee With A Cop began in 2011 and has since been celebrated annually on the first Wednesday of October.
“It’s great to meet people in different circumstances’’ rather than during a traffic stop or other official business, said Lakeville School Resource Officer Valerie Bartholomew. “It’s the same reason why, when I’m in the schools, I try to talk to the kids to show them the police aren’t scary.”
In addition to letting communities connect with officers on a personal level, Coffee With A Cop serves as an educational opportunity. During a previous outreach event, officers went to a café day at the Council on Aging to discuss scams and identity theft with seniors.
“There are a lot of good things to come from this, and it might not be something huge, but it could be something huge to one person,” Perkins said. “It could be something little where people think they would bother us by calling about it. Here, it comes up naturally.”
