Multiple Grandview police officers, including the chief of police, sat down this morning for a cup of joe with the public.
“As everyone knows, when you sit down and drink coffee, you usually talk and that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing,” said Grandview Police Sgt. Greg Smith ahead of the Friday morning meeting.
Grandview mayor Leonard Jones said there was no agenda, and no question was off limits for officers.
“It’s just a good thing to do to make sure that, again, another tool in the tool belt is that the police officers can be engaged in the community,” said Jones.
Both Jones and Smith said the "Coffee with a Cop" event was a year in the making. Smith said the engagement is an effort to improve public relations during a tense national debate regarding police.
“We want to get out — and a lot of police departments are the same way — we want to get out and show citizens, show the community, that police officers and the citizens can come together and they can be one entity together,” said Sgt. Smith.
Smith says this first event is hopefully the beginning of a series of Coffee with a Cop events in Grandview.
“A lot of people, citizens; their first contact with an officer is like on a call, like maybe someone broke into their house or something,” said Smith. “This is the best way that they can get together with police officers and come together and bond at that point, not waiting for an officer to respond on a call for service.”
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
