- January 15, 2025
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Port Orange residents took the opportunity to get their caffeine fix and talk to local law enforcement during the Wednesday, July 19 Coffee with a Cop event.
The 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. coffee break gave locals the chance to speak with members of the Port Orange Police Department and Volusia County Sheriff’s Office about concerns, questions and simply get to know their police officers a little better.
“It’s in a friendly setting where everybody's on equal ground,” Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Supervisor Richard Hansard said. “They don't have to feel intimated or scared, they can come out and have a cup of coffee and see what we’re about.”
This was Hansard’s second time participating in Coffee with a Cop. He explained he wanted to come to this month’s event, located at the Taylor Road McDonald’s, to make sure he could answer any questions the community might have.
According to Port Orange Police Chief Thomas Grimaldi, they have been doing Coffee with a Cop locally since he first joined the Port Orange Police Department in November 2015.
Coffee with A Cop was first started in 2011 by members of the Hawthorne Police Department in California looking for more ways to engage with the community. Since then, the event has been hosted in all 50 states.
“Rather than just sitting in an office as a patrol captain I like to get out and meet our citizens face to face and hear what some of their problems are and what their concerns are and work on addressing them,” Port Orange Police Patrol Capt. Scott Brozio said.
Grimaldi explained it has continually been important for them to be out in the community and meeting with the people in the area to build public trust. They have even extend this to the city's younger generation by holding a Soda Pop with a Cop event so that children can meet the officers and ask their own questions.
“Public trust, to us, is paramount,” Grimaldi said. “Without public trust we have nothing. That’s what’s really important about these programs.”
For Brozio, who was at his fourth Coffee with a Cop, much of Wednesday’s discussion focused on parking issues in the different subdivisions, including violations relating to parking the wrong way and vehicles blocking sidewalks.
Brozio said they are now working on having the traffic and motors division set parking campaigns in the different subdivisions. This is just one example why the officers were there that morning. Because in addition to the casual conversation and the coffee refills, they were ready to hear about concerns, big or small, and discuss what could be done.
“It’s about building relations in our community and that’s what’s important,” Grimaldi said. “It’s just about being available to our residents so they can voice their concerns, whatever that may be and even just to talk and show them we’re human.”
