By Mikayla van Loon
Looking to engage with the community and hear from locals on what’s happening around their homes and businesses, Coffee with a Cop is making a return.
Acting Sergeant Jayden Coulson from Mooroolbark Police Station has been leading the push for this approach, seeing the coffee break return on Tuesday 12 November.
With sponsorship from the Rotary Club of Lilydale, coffees, up to a certain dollar value, will be paid for on the day, so it’s the perfect opportunity for people to meet and chat with their local police members about what is concerning them.
The third partner in the project is The CriBB Cafe, who have kindly offered to host the event.
Acting Sgt Coulson said the focus will be on engagement and listening to the community, while also providing information and resources.
“The idea is to get back to community engagement so there’s a bit more feedback on what’s happening locally and what can be done,” he said.
“We have a perception of what is going on but that is skewed to what we see as officers.
“It’s also an education process because of the amount of thefts from motor vehicles and burglaries that are happening and talking about security and how people can protect themselves.”
As the first step in building relationships and having a community policing presence, Acting Sgt Coulson said hopefully in the future there will be room to host other events like a community barbecue.
“It’s a way of starting, to try and re-engage a little bit more with the community and then hopefully every couple of months, something like this will be happening,” he said.
“We’re looking at anything we can do to help the police step into the community a bit more.”
Coffee with a Cop will be held from 11am to 1pm at The CriBB, located at 222 Main Street, Lilydale.
