Hopatcong Coffee With a Cop Gets Tee Shirt Honors

Started in 2011 by Hawthorne Police Department in California - Coffee with a Cop events are now flourishing in all 50 states. It is one of the most successful community oriented policing programs across the country.

The Hopatcong Police Dept has adopted the format of this great program. The first Thursday of the month Hopatcong does Coffee with a Cop from 6 – 8 pm. Officer James Still and Officer Christopher Lottito pour the coffee and open the doors to the Community Center at the Hopatcong Walgreens Center plaza.

Patrolman James Still has coordinated some great topics. There are also some simple informative Q&A’s on the role and services of the Police Dept. Totally these attendees take in common good civic duty wisdoms that they can practice too. This program has also been on the pulse of important community concerns with a special program edition: “The Dangers of Vaping” which was held on November 21^st.

Hopatcong’s Coffee With a Cop brings awareness of the unique problems and concerns that our local police department encounters in the Hopatcong community. This makes these program events even more engaging. It is no wonder that Coffee With a Cop has developed a group of loyal attendee followers and they have become volunteer supporters too that bring the additional potluck coffee snacks for the occasion or the program’s mascot dog that welcomes everyone.

For the start of the New Year, Coffee with a Cop’s special followers decided that these devoted officers should be honored with a tee shirt. Mara Modes an active community participant and Fran Tierney skilled at fabric artwork thought up the concept of the tee shirts. Fran designed the shirts to best advertise the program that has fondly become a beneficial community calendar event each month. Andrea L thought it would be fun to design the same shirt for the mascot welcome dog Zenny. The tees were presented to them at the beginning of the Coffee With the Cop session.

We can also be proud of the Hopatcong Police Dept because it is the headquarters of the Sussex County Police Explorers program. The same officers provide training to 15 Explorers ages 14 to 21. The Explorers attended the January Coffee With the Cop session to demonstrate public training exercises regarding police procedure when conducting a traffic stop.

Questions and suggestions to the Coffee With the Cop program can contact Ptl. Still at
973-398-5000.