Tasmania Police has coffee with community

On Friday, the organisation held its first Cuppa with a Cop event for the North at Mowbray.  

Neighbourhood Watch Tasmanian state president Jan Dunsby said she was happy with the turn out. 

“We had quite a lot of people turn up,” she said. 

“We’ve had a very positive reaction. They loved that we gave them a free cup of coffee as well.” 

Ms Dunsby said the event was a chance for the community to interact with Tasmania Police in a “non-confronting” way. 

“At the end of the day people don’t usually get a chance to interact with police in this way,” she said. 

“We just think it’s a way to relax and engage with the community.”

Tasmania Police Detective Inspector Philippa Burk said the initiative started in California in 2011. 

“It is a chance for police officers to engage with the community. It’s so that they can see that there is more of a human side to police, yes we’re police. But, we’re humans, too,” she said. 

“Often people only ever see police when they’ve been arrested by us or when they’re dealing with a tragic situation.”

Inspector Burk said the event was “really good” and people were enthusiastic. 

“There was a little bit of apprehension for people to approach at first, but once they realise what we’re doing then people have been approaching us,” she said. 

The first Tasmanian event was held in Hobart a couple of weeks ago.