Coffee with a cop

Police officers who attended the Coffee with a Cop event hosted at Café March 21 on Feb. 7 said they believe it will help “humanize” them in citizen eyes.

The Downtown Windsor Community Collaborative partnered with the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association to host a semi-annual event, where police officers gather at a local business to sit down and have a regular conversation with community members.

This event is meant for people in the community to visit local businesses all over the city, sit down and have a conversation with a police officer in a non-threatening environment. Sarah Cipkar of the DWCC said she considers the event an overall success because many community members usually attend. However, fewer people than usual attended the February event.

“The weather’s not great today, but we normally have a good number of residents and business owners that do come out. There’s free coffee and free snacks so people tend to come in and say hello,” said Cipkar.

The police officers who attended the event at Café March 21 were all officers who either had previous experience with community-related events or the cops who patrol around the area the event was held. These events are hosted all over the city, so the police can find out the needs of various parts of the community. The officers say the biggest impact the event has had is on their relationship with citizens.

“I think for us it’s more of networking,” said Constable Wilson. “So we get to meet some of the people and business owners and pass out our numbers. If they have any questions or concerns they can always contact us directly. They don’t always have to go through 911 to get a hold of police officers.”

The police officers answered questions from the audience about wait times and why there are not enough officers around. Most people were interested in hearing more about how Windsor police will be reducing property crime.

“There’s lot of property crime, there’s lot of people concerned about their personal safety beyond the streets, so a lot of residents come here asking about what the best practice is when it comes to making sure your house is secure.” said Cipkar, who has attended all the events.

There have been three of these events so far with Windsor Police and Cipkar said they are looking to have more in the near future.