More than a dozen members of the Los Medanos College community joined LMC’s Police Services Wednesday to celebrate National Coffee with a Cop Day in the Student Union.
According to the CWAC website, the day was created as part of National Community Policing Week in 2016 “to encourage communication and positive interactions between law enforcement agencies and the public.”
Interim Police Chief Ryan Huddleston said it is important for the Contra Costa Community College District Police Department to be transparent through events like this that provide the local community — faculty, staff and students — the opportunity to “reach out and ask us anything that they want. There’s no agenda. It’s not us asking the questions. It’s listening to them.”
Among those who came to the event, art student Joshua Womack said the relationship between the police and the public is “not always the best, because there’s always good apples and bad apples, and quite often, bad apples outshine the good apples.” He added that he came to the event to “talk about their education on the amendments and laws they’re supposed to enforce.”
In addition to Huddleston, police officers Erik Calderon and Joshua Faleafine, dispatch officer Diana Alvarez and a couple student police aides were also present to discuss efforts to bridge the understanding gap between students and police by conversing with them and listening to their feedback.
Student Andre Fingesi enjoyed the positive atmosphere of the event.
“It’s bringing people together. You know, people and police talking together,” he said, “That’s a good thing. Nothing bad, not talking about anything negative.”
Huddleston not only values the feedback, but the networking opportunities as well.
“When we hold events like this, we’ve actually found police aides, people who had no idea that those jobs existed on campus. So, they learn more opportunities on campus,” he said, noting that students could even pick up police aide applications that they had on hand.
In addition to chatting with police officers over a cup of coffee and cookies, students and others attending the event were provided with swag like pencils, stickers, magnets, stress balls and coloring books that explained what to do if you are bullied on campus.
Huddleston also highlighted a few of the services the department provides, including both vehicle and foot patrol — and even police escorts.
“When people feel unsafe on campus, they can reach out to us and request an escort,” he said.
To contact police services for an escort or non-emergency matters, call (925) 439-1505. Their after-hours dispatch number is (925) 646-2441.
According to Alvarez, there is a panic button in every classroom that gives the user direct access to police dispatch. When pressed, the dispatch officer will send a police officer to the scene of the emergency to help. For more information about Police Services, visit the Campus Safety and Security page on the LMC website at losmedanos.edu.
Officer Calderon said he values being part of the college community and that everyone can do their part in helping keep the campus safe “by being law-abiding citizens and trying to be our eyes and ears and call us when something’s going on. Like I said before, we can’t do it ourselves. We need the community behind us. We’re part of the community. We’re integrated.”
