Edhat StaffSource: Santa Barbara County Sheriff
The Isla Vista Foot Patrol is joining law enforcement agencies across the country in participating with “National Coffee with a Cop Day” on October 4, 2017. Sheriff’s deputies and UCSB Police officers assigned to the Isla Vista Foot Patrol will be at Starbucks located at 888 Embarcadero Del Norte from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. next Wednesday to welcome University of California, Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College students back to school and get to know some of the students and residents in the community. 
We hope you will join us for this opportunity to have coffee and conversation with law enforcement who patrol and help keep the Isla Vista community safe. IVFP Lieutenant Ruben Cintron, Community Resource Deputy James McKarrell and UCSB Police Lt. Mark Signa will be among those attending.
Coffee with a Cop is a national initiative that aims to advance the practice of community policing by opening communication and fostering a greater understanding between citizens and police. The idea is to provide residents with an informal setting to meet deputies that work in their neighborhoods and talk about their concerns. The goal is break down barriers, build lasting relationships and familiarize the public with people who are there to protect and serve them.
More than 600 law enforcement agencies participated in the inaugural “National Coffee with a Cop Day” last year in 2016. The Coffee with a Cop program was started in 2011 by the Hawthorne Police Department. Since then, more than 2,000 law enforcement agencies have participated in the community outreach program. The Sheriff’s Office has been holding “Coffee with a Cop” events at various locations in the county since 2013.
