ST. PAUL – While grabbing a warm cup of coffee at the St. Paul A&W is part of the morning routine for many residents, on Dec. 20, customers were joined by a group of RCMP officers to chat about anything and everything.
It was the first of the St. Paul RCMP detachment’s “Coffee with a Cop” pilot initiative.
The initiative is about getting to know members of the RCMP and vice-versa, according to Sgt. Bobby Burgess, operations NCO for the Town/County of the St. Paul RCMP.
The next Coffee with a Cop will be held on Jan. 30 and Feb. 27 at the same location, running from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
The idea behind the initiative is simple. Instead of engaging with people in “a formal setting,” like the RCMP’s annual community consultations, Coffee with a Cop is meant to provide “regular human being discussion with people... to make people comfortable to come to us and just have a conversation,” said Burgess.
“It could be anything... not just about policing. You can ask us where we’re from, and what made us want to become an RCMP officer,” adds Burgess.
Taking in the invitation, Lakeland This Week asked Burgess what made him want to become an RCMP officer.
He laughed and said, “Honestly, it was a dream from a young age... something that I always had an interest in.” Burgess enjoyed watching cop shows on TV, which helped inspire him to don the uniform –and work to make communities a better place.
It’s also about being a role model, “And just setting a good example for younger kids,” he adds.
Burgess has been in the St. Paul community for a while. Outside of being a cop, he spends time on the ice as a hockey coach, attends community events, and simply enjoys being a member of the community.
Coffee with a Cop is an opportunity for the community to see past the uniform and recognize that RCMP officers are part of the community.
“It’s about being informal, about us sitting here and getting to know people from the community, and for them to see us as human beings rather than a uniform,” says Burgess. He compares it to sitting down “with your friends [and] having a beer or a coffee with them.”
Burgess hopes the initiative will continue to take place monthly for an extended period of time. “But it’s kind of up to the community to decide if that’s going to happen or not,” he says. “For the next three months, it’s going to be a given that we’re going to be here.”
Burgess hopes people are not concerned or afraid to approach the local police officers, even if it is to discuss more serious issues.
Burgess also took the opportunity to encourage the public to come forward with information they may have about crimes that have occurred in the area.
“We need people to come forward with information about what they’re seeing out there and their concerns about policing.”
Looking ahead to the next Coffee with a Cop dates, Burgess says, “We just want to talk to people. That’s why we’re here... We’re here to listen to them.”
