HICKORY CREEK — With the community in mind, Corinth, Hickory Creek and Lake Dallas police gathered to casually speak with locals during the Coffee With a Cop at Thousand Hills Church in Corinth on Saturday morning.
Corinth’s Chief Jerry Garner said this is his department’s first multiagency Coffee With a Cop with the other Lake Cities departments.
Garner said the Corinth Police Department tries to hold Coffee With a Cop at least twice a year. He said the idea was to get all three agencies together and give residents some time to meet with police and ask questions.
“It’s a chance to meet everybody,” Garner said. “And it’s just kind of a feel-good thing. … It’s just coffee and talk. We tell people, any question you’ve ever had about what police do, [just] ask.”
Garner said the event is part of the National Faith & Blue Weekend — four days of locally organized community officer engagement as part of the nation’s largest annual collaborative policing initiative.
The Faith & Blue initiative is aimed at helping form safer and stronger communities by engaging law enforcement officers and local residents through connections with faith-based organizations.
Garner said the Rev. Ben De Boef offered to host the event at Thousand Hills Church. The chief said the space was perfect since they usually would host in a bakery shop, where there isn’t much room.
De Boef said the church and the community wanted to show their support of the police force. He thanked them for their service to the community and said the police are a big part of keeping the community safe and successful.
“We wanted to be able to see the community and the police force come together and let them know hey, ‘We love you. We support you. We’re behind you. And we thank them for their service to the community,”’ De Boef said.
Hickory Creek Chief Carey Dunn said the event was an opportunity to interact with all three police agencies. He said the three agencies all work together to keep the community safe.
Dunn said the police agencies get local input to refocus their efforts on the community’s wants and needs.
“We all work together very closely, and we want to present that we are very close-knit and that we care about the community, and we want to be able to have those relationships and build them together,” he said.
De Boef said the turnout was great, and the three police agencies appreciated the church hosting the event.
“They’re very appreciative that we would do this, and they [police] are thankful that we were able to use the space and have the coffee and snacks,” De Boef said. “They’ve been very, very kind in our response.”
Wake Up with the DR-C: Get today's headlines in your inbox
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Featured Local Savings
Featured Local Savings
JUAN BETANCOURT can be reached via Twitter at @jbetancourt_15.