Initiative Brewing Conversation With Police

The Saint John Police Force (SJPF) has a new initiative connecting officers with the community.

‘Coffee with a Cop’ has two basic foundations: recruitment, and a pilot project where officers go across Saint John and discuss issues in neighbourhoods with residents.

“It’s something that has been going on in policing where officers and the community are trying to get closer together,” Chief Robert Bruce said during a Saint John Board of Police Commissioners meeting.

Bruce brought up that SJPF operates ‘Coffee with a Cop’ a bit differently than other police forces.

For recruitment, officers head to universities, colleges and high schools to talk about policing.

“That’s from our recruiting team to try and generate energy and interest in the Saint John Police Force,” mentioned Bruce.

For the pilot project, members head to one of Saint John’s five priority neighbourhoods to discuss issues residents have witnessed or want to be addressed.

“Myself and the Deputy [Chief Honey Dwyer] are going out and taking coffee out to community centres, sitting down talking to people about the issues they have in their community,” said Bruce.

“We’re going out and trying to find out what the issues are, and that’s why we are running a pilot for November to see what the issues are, what kind of issues we think we can deal with, and if we find this successful, we’ll continue it on with our neighbourhood officers.”

Saint John police will also advertise the initiative to other community members to see if they would be interested in having officers head to their area and discuss issues within their neighbourhood.