Lynne Mowbray | Residents of Maclean and Grafton had the opportunity last Tuesday, to share a ‘Coffee with a Cop’. The Coffs-Clarence Police District held their ‘Coffee with a Cop’ day at Toast Espresso in Grafton and Botero Cafe in Maclean. Coffs-Clarence Police District Chief Inspector Joanne Reid said that it was a successful event at both venues. “There was some really positive interaction with the community, with really pleasing feedback,” Chief Insp. Reid said. “We had positive feedback from people who’d had a really good experience with police when reporting a crime, as well as nice feedback in general for the great work that’s being done out there by the officers, day in and day out. “It was great to just stop and take five minutes out of the day to chat with people. “Most people’s experience with police is because of a negative reason when something has happened to them; they’ve been a victim of crime or something traumatic has happened to them. So I think that the ‘take away’ from the day for me was that an event like ‘Coffee with a Cop’ gives us a chance to have a positive interaction with people. “We had a lot of kids come down and say g’day as well which I really enjoyed and we were able to play dress ups with them and we had some giveaways for them. “One mum in particular brought her son down as a bit of a reward for him doing really well at school and just being a good kid in general and so he got to come down and spend a couple of hours with the police and sit in a Highway Patrol car, he was just really pumped. They were just some of the great stories we saw this morning. “We certainly shouted some coffees during the morning and I loved nothing more than working up to the line of people in the cafe and saying ‘can we buy you a coffee’; the look on their faces was priceless. “Hopefully we can do more of these events in different towns and places within our district and get more people to share in that positive experience. “Having access to police in that more relaxed environment is very rare and I wish we could do it more often,” she said.