The Stuart Police Department continued its ongoing effort to be involved in the community in a positive light with their Coffee with a Cop event Wednesday.

As part of a national event, Stuart Police Chief Dave Reha and officers Katie Guisinger and Tyler DeFrancisco served free donuts and coffee at City Hall, engaging with residents on their questions, concerns, or positive things happening in the community. Among the attendees were several of the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Chaplains, a volunteer pastoral group. Chaplain Dennis Patrick explains why he chose to attend, “Well, it’s a great opportunity to show support for the officers here. And a chance to meet them, because I hadn’t met all the officers here. And just to show them that there are people out there that appreciate what they do, and as chaplains we want to be able to support them.”

Officer Guisinger shares why the department hosted this free outreach event, “The community connections are important for our department, it really helps bridge that gap between the police department community and if we can help the community and they can more about what we do or why we do things and then if they have any questions we can help explain to them well this is why we do this, this is why we don’t do that.”

Coffee with a Cop is one of several instances of the department’s community outreach, besides their National Night Out event, two of their officers’ recent school resource officer certification, and a new criminal justice club that Guisinger has started at West Central Valley High School.