University Police (UPD) invites students and faculty to join them at this year’s Coffee With a Cop event, Oct. 4 from 12 p.m. to 4p.m. at Abbott Hall on South Campus.
This is the second year UPD participated in the national event, which offers students free coffee and conversation with University Police officers.
UPD teamed up with Campus Dining and Shops and University Libraries to bring the event to South Campus this year, according to Police Chief Gerald Schoenle. Schoenle said the South Campus location is “ideal” and hopes it will be as popular as last year’s event, where they ran out of coffee several times.
This is also the destination for UPD’s next sub-station, opening next year.
Schoenle said this event is just one of the many ways UPD strives to engage with students and the rest of the UB community.
“We constantly look for ways to work with our campus community, as community policing is our main policing philosophy,” Schoenle said. “For a police department to be truly effective we must have good community police relations.”
In addition to Coffee with a Cop, officers attend alternative spring breaks with students, work on six Sigma projects with engineering students and more, Schoenle said. They also offer an annual Citizens Police Academy to give students the chance to see what policing entails.
“Most recently we worked with architecture students on designing prototypes for a modern police facility that could enhance police community relations and encourage student-police activities,” Schoenle said.
Sarah Crowley is the senior news editor and can be reached at sarah.crowley@ubspectrum.com
