Far South Coast police officers were on a mission in Eden on Wednesday. A mission to improve relationships between officers and community members, one cup of coffee at a time.
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A diverse range of officers – from domestic violence officers to Aboriginal community liaison officers – sat down with locals over a cuppa at S2 Cafe for Eden’s first Coffee with a Cop event, an initiative aimed at fostering strong engagement between police and communities.
Chief Inspector Anthony Moodie said shouting the public a free coffee was a way to open channels of communication which could help officers fight crime.
“At this moment we’ve had a few things happen in Eden that we need the public’s assistance with and we want people to be able to come to us and tell us what they know,” Inspector Moodie said.
The event was a hit with locals who agreed they would like to see it happen again.
“I think it’s a great idea, I think there could be more but maybe police don’t have time for it, but I told them we would try to behave so it can happen again,” Eden resident Desma Beck said.
The police also had balloons and wrist bands to give out to the younger attendees which made young Kai Muscat particularly happy.
At five-years-old, Kai desperately wants to be a policeman when he grows up (with a police dog) and his mum said he has been lucky enough to meet the local police on a number of occasions but she said it was nice for him to see them all in one place together.
Kai said he thought Coffee with a Cop was “really cool”.
The event was timed with the end of the school day so at 3pm a large group of Eden Public School students arrived to meet the police.
Inspector Moodie said he expects that this was the first of many Coffee with a Cop events in Eden.
