This morning, the Rifle Police Department hosted Coffee With a Cop in Downtown Rifle. The local version of the national law enforcement outreach program featured chats with several members of the Rifle PD, including Police Chief Debra Funston.
With snowflakes floating about outside of the cafe, the warm drinks and pastries are all the more enticing. At 9 a.m. most cafes are quite busy, but the Whistle Pig Cafe is even moreso while officers in uniform mill about with their lattes, and customers stop by to ask a question or say hello. Police Chief Debra Funston describes what interactions her staff have most often at these events.
"Well first and foremost, they want to come in and meet some of the officers. So a lot of times they want to come in and meet them, a lot of times the questions have to do with, 'How we respond to X, Y , and Z?' Or, 'What's the protocol?'" Funston said. "Or, you know, occasionally we have somebody who has just been through an incident and doesn't understand some of the procedures and they may want to come in and just get a little more feedback., and so it's a really good opportunity in a really casual setting to be able to just talk to our citizens, answer questions, tell a joke, drink coffee together.'
Public information officer Angela Mills said that the department intends to hold the meetings quarterly starting this year, at the request of residents.
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