Talking with police officers over coffee

Township police hosted Coffee with a Cop at the Starbucks inside Deptford’s Target on April 11.

From 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., residents talked with five officers about any number of topics and dined on some of the light food provided by the police department.

“Target asked us if we wanted to do it and they’re fun usually,” officer Chris Troughton noted of the coffee event. “It’s always nice talking to people in the typical police capacity. People actually want to talk to me right now, while usually they don’t want to.”

With the casual backdrop of a small store cafe, shoppers and visitors had a chance to connect with officers on a more personal level rather than in an emergency interaction.

“Typically, some of the population will tell us about what they’re having issues with on their day-to-day (lives) that they don’t want to call about,” Troughton explained. “That’s always nice, because that gives us info we wouldn’t have otherwise.

“We had a baby take some pictures with us because her uncle is in the sheriff’s office in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and then we had another girl behind us coloring. It’s always nice letting the kids know that we’re safe to talk to.”

Target employees also took brief breaks in their shifts to pose for pictures and chat with the officers. The police department provided information on its job applications and the junior police academy it holds every summer.

Coffee with a Cop is a national initiative that was started in 2011 by a police department in California, according to the Coffee with a Cop website. It’s a way for officers to have more successful interactions between themselves and their communities and to develop camaraderie with residents. It has since become its own nonprofit, with all 50 states participating.

“We’ve actually had some feedback,” said Troughton. “People want us to do it on a weekend so they can bring in their kids. If we do it again, we’ll probably do it on a weekend instead of a weekday.”