CRESTVIEW— Crestview Police Department officers descended on Casbah Coffee Wednesday morning to finish an objective. No burglars or drug dealers were during a stage though a goal was clear: listen.
There was small rendezvous in a village aside from pursuit duties when Tony Taylor was named a CPD’s arch in 2012. He started a unchanging entertainment during a infrequent plcae for residents to accommodate him and other officers while providing a dialect with feedback.
“It’s an eventuality to keep a finger on a beat of a community,” Taylor pronounced about a ‘Coffee with a Cop’ initiative.
Coffee with a Cop is a inhabitant pull to boost communication between military agencies and a residents they serve. The thought has widespread to all 50 states given a 2011 source in California, according to a website.
“I had no thought it was a inhabitant beginning when [CPD] motionless to do it,” Taylor said, adding that carrying such an eventuality “just done sense” when he assimilated a department.
Meeting with a village in a open place allows residents to proceed officers in a some-more infrequent environment to offer suggestions, voice complaints, give interjection or simply accommodate a department’s leadership.
“It’s critical to come here with no agenda,” Taylor said. “It provides a neutral belligerent for complaints.”
Residents competence not be prone to revisit a hire or call an executive phone line with issues or concerns since it can be uncomforting, according to Taylor. The response CPD receives during village events helps them improved know a needs of people it serves.
Wednesday’s two-hour eventuality captivated several residents who discussed traffic, speeding, girl initiatives and voiced support for Crestview’s officers.
“A integrate [people] had genuine issues such as speeding on their streets,” Taylor said. The dialect can take such information and obstruct unit efforts to a regard areas for monitoring.
Without residents’ input, some issues go but military knowledge, Taylor added.
“Sometimes, as chief, I’m a final one to hear about issues and we rest on that feedback to keep me informed,” Taylor said.
A date has not been set for a subsequent Coffee with a Cop event, according to CPD open information officer Brian Hughes.
The dialect is exploring hosting a eventuality during a repeated plcae each month so a village can design and devise for a event.