Next Wednesday, October 3, the Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) will collaborate with the Hawthorne, California Police Department (PD) and law enforcement agencies nationwide to recognize the third annual National Coffee with a Cop Day. The mission of National Coffee with a Cop Day is to reduce barriers between police and the public and to increase public safety. The first Coffee with a Cop originated in 2011 as a police-community partnership-building effort of Hawthorne PD, which the COPS Office later started to fund in 2012. As of 2016, the COPS Office designated the first Wednesday of October as National Coffee with a Cop Day.
The COPS Office encourages members of the public to get involved to create meaningful conversations between the police and community residents. Local partners can find more information on how to get involved, retrieve contact information for organizations who have hosted past events, and sign up for or register their event on the National Coffee with a Cop website.