This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Twelve members of the Longmont Police Department gathered at Ziggi's Coffee, located at 1139 Francis St., on Sunday, August 12 to chat with Longmont residents during Longmont's first Coffee with A Cop event.
Residents of all ages stopped by to have conversations and share their concerns during this informal event. Guests grabbed a cup of coffee and either found a seat at a table or approached a police officer. If an officer saw someone sitting alone, that officer would approach the resident and spark up a conversation.
I, myself, met with Officer Melinda Burnett. She and I have been emailing back and forth about an upcoming story and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to meet her in person. She is the leader of the Police Explorers group (more on that soon), and we began discussing how social anxiety affects how our youth communicates.
Later I met with Officer Paul Beach. Officer Beach is on traffic patrol in Longmont and told me a bit about himself and his role on the police force. We also discussed the role media plays in society today. Later we were joined by another resident and we jumped into conversations about education and concerns of Longmont's Hispanic population.
Before the event ended, I was able to chat with Officer David Bonday, who organized the Coffee with A Cop event. We agreed that it seemed to have been a success with quite a large turn-out. All twelve officers stayed until the very end and had plenty of people to talk to, often 1-3 people per officer at any given time.
Officer Bonday said that he wants to continue hosting Coffee with A Cop at several locations throughout Longmont, in order to give people from all over the city close access to the event. He originally planned on hosting the next one in 3-4 months, however, after seeing the turn-out for the first, is now encouraged to try for a date closer in the future.
