Oceanside CA— The Oceanside Police Department held its first ‘Coffee with a Cop’ event this morning, November 17, 2014 at Coco’s Restaurant on Mission Avenue.
About a dozen representatives from the department, including Oceanside Police Chief, Frank McCoy, were on hand to chat with members of the community. “We have motor-officers to answer questions about traffic. A detective to answer questions about how investigations work and beat officers who can gather information about citizens concerns and pass that information along to other shifts and the officers working that beat.” explained Oceanside Police Lieutenant, Leonard Cosby.
“We want to break down the barriers between the police department and the community.” continued Lt Cosby. “We would like people to see that we are just people too. To have business owners and citizens share their concerns with us informally, one on one. That helps us do our job better.”

Jessica Hamdi, a Neighborhood Watch block Captain attended the event with her 8 month-old son Jeremiah. “I just came down here to see my people and catch up with what’s going on.” said Hamdi.
Ione Elsner arrived right at 8:00am for the ‘Coffee with a Cop’ event. “I have questions” said Ione “lot’s of questions” Ione’s concerns ranged from graffiti to wondering if the police department is going to hire more people with the new housing going up in her neighborhood.
Lt. Cosby said the Coffee with a Cop program began a few years ago in Los Angeles. “I hope this event builds some momentum. We hope to do another one in the Tri-city area.” continued the Lieutenant ” We will take what we learn from this event such as the day of the week it’s held and the time of day and use it to plan our future events. We will make some adjustments and build on today’s event.”