Police from the Limestone Coast Local Service Area engaged with the community over coffee at their recent ‘Coffee with a Cop’ event.
This event was a special one held on May 4, also known as Star Wars Day, ‘May The 4th Be With You’.
The Coffee with a Cop events are held in conjunction with the Mount Gambier Marketplace at the food court bi-monthly.
The police car was polished to perfection and driven into the Marketplace and Sergeant Jade Hill was thrilled with the event turnout.
“The police car certainly drew a lot of attention, particularly from young people in our community, and we also had a lot of adults interested in our police vehicle,” Sgt Hill said.
“It brought a different point of interest for people, and it is something that a lot of people do not generally get to see up close.
“People were able to ask lots of questions and see the equipment that we have in the police vehicle.”
Sgt Hill said people asked police questions about the police vehicle itself along with various other topics and there was also lots of take-home material available for both children and adults.
“Some people were very interested in talking about scams and we were able to provide some scam material to prevent them from becoming victims of scams,” Sgt Hill said.
“Other people were talking about recruitment; some people were talking about home security.
“We were able to provide some fridge magnet cards which have got the various contact numbers on them which are also good if you have got children in the home, so they can call those numbers should they need us.
“We had a whole lot of information available there and certainly around road safety, road safety is always a hot topic at our coffee with a cop events.”
Sgt Hill said the event was a great opportunity to engage with children and ensure they had a good education about police in community.
“I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with the little people, they were just so thrilled to ask us questions, see a part of our role and learn about us and also see the police car,” she said.
“It was really special for some of them, some of them visited just to see the police and the police car, so that was really good.
“Some of them were quite shy in the first instance but as we got talking to them, we broke down those barriers and they were more than happy to talk to us.
“What I do is really wholesome, it is why I love what I do.”
Sgt Hill said it was important adults taught children that police were safe people they could come to in times of need.
“Some adults or parents have a tendency to say to their little kids ‘if you misbehave, I am going to take you to the police station,’ or ‘I am going take you to the police and then police are going to tell you off or arrest you,’ we are really trying to turn that mentality around,” she said.
“We want parents to be educating their kids that we are safe people to come to, that unless they are old enough to be apprehended or taken into police custody if they have committed a crime against law rather than just misbehaving, they are not going to come into trouble with us.
“They need to know they can come to us and feel confident that our services are going to be there to assist them should they need us.”
Sgt Hill also said in light of the recent events in Crystal Brook, many people thanked the police for everything they did.
“On the back end of that, which was a horrific event for SAPOL and the members involved, to actually have the community come up and with great gratitude and appreciation of what we do in our community was really appreciated by us,” she said.
