Pocono Township Police Department to host Coffee with a Cop on Saturday
The Pocono Township Police Department will be holding a Coffee with a Cop event at Nick's Big Belly Deli in Scotrun on Saturday, May 18, from 9 a.m. to noon.
According to Patrol Sgt. Eric Rath, the event will be held for its second year, with last year's event being held at a Dunkin' in Tannersville.
“This is one of the events that the township sponsors,” said Rath, crediting the township’s administrative assistant, Jennifer Gambino, in starting the event the prior year. “With Chief (James Wagner) taking over and making the community policing initiative more of our focus, we kind of jumped on board a lot more this year to assist her with the event.”
Rath recalled, when the owner of Nick’s Big Belly Deli was asked to host the event, how he immediately said yes and was looking forward to hosting it.
“So, we're lucky that we have business owners in the area that are very law enforcement, Pocono Township police friendly,” said Rath. “So, when we try to host an event like this, it's not really hard to find a venue that wants to host it for us.”
In organizing and executing this event, Rath hopes that people get to meet the people behind the badge and not have it be during some type of police interaction.
“A lot of times, and especially in today's society, people see police and they only associate them with some kind of law enforcement action,” said Rath, adding that it is a great opportunity to have a conversation about anything. “Doesn't have to be law enforcement related, you know what I mean? ‘How was your day? How was your day? What are you doing tomorrow?’ You know? Just normal conversations to get to know the individual, not just the police officer.”
Max Augugliaro is the public safety and government watchdog reporter at the Pocono Record. Reach him at MAugugliaro@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Pocono Township Police Department's Coffee with a Cop set for Saturday
