Police officers meet up with the community in Coffee with a Cop

DORAL, FL – On Tuesday, June 18, police officers from Miami-Dade, City of Doral, Sweetwater, and Medley gathered with the community in “Coffee with a Cop”, an event organized by Doral Family Journal.

In this opportunity, Miami Dade College West Campus at 3800 NW 115th Ave in Doral served as platform to facilitate an open and constructive face-to-face dialogue with law enforcement representatives to highlight the importance of community policing.

During “Coffee with a Cop”, residents were able to learn about the work the police is doing in terms of security, share their concerns and strengthen community bonds.

“I think it’s extremely important for these events to take place because it allows us to strengthen the security within our cities, create collaboration and understand what other departments are doing. Obviously sometimes crime extends past the municipal boundaries and jurisdictions that we have so working with other law enforcement agencies is extremely important,” City of Doral Mayor, Christi Fraga, said.

She also praised Doral’s Chief of Police, Edwin Lopez, for the relationship he has managed to build with surrounding municipalities.

“In those moments when, for example, we’ve done active shooter trainings, he involves all the different departments from the county as well as other municipalities to increase the safety and security for the residents and business owners in our city,” she added.

In response to this, Chief Lopez said is not easy to be a law enforcement officer in today’s world where several things are happening at the same time. 

“We have a lot of different challenges navigating not only crime trends in our cities but crime trends that occur throughout the country, so we are able to forecast and predict preventive strategies in order to make these incidents that may occur somewhere else in the United States or in the world don’t permeate down here in South Florida,” Lopez stated.

“Because of the relationships that we have with our local law enforcement partners we are able to safeguard our city. The crime trends that are unique to Doral are also unique to Sweetwater, to Miami-Dade County, to Medley and other cities across South Florida. We are very fortunate and blessed to have positive relationships and work in conjunction with every city.”

Lopez also said to the audience he hopes everyone feels comfortable calling 911 and that callers know exactly what officer assisted them. “That’s what make us unique in Miami-Dade County.”

In addition, police officers from Sweetwater, Medley and Miami-Dade County expressed “Coffee with a Cop” is a unique space that works because it unites neighbors and law enforcement officers in an informal way around a cup of coffee to discuss how to improve South Florida together. 

They said communication between departments continues to be crucial to know what’s going on and to intervene in a timely manner as well as the feedback, involvement and insight from residents to better serve them, understanding that when a problem arises jurisdictional boundaries cease to exist because serving those in need becomes the priority. 

Lastly, police officers responded a question from someone from the audience that asked how business owners can help in deterring crime to which they replied one way is by being invited to their businesses so that they can talk to the staff and share information on, for example, what to do in an active shooter incident; contacting the police through social media and if the business is in Doral, joining the Connect Doral program.