California Police Chief- Fall 2013 CPCA_2017_Winter Magazine Final | Page 27
velop means for civic engagement. They were allowed to
take ownership of them. Build inroads with our residents,
youth, business owners, before we meet around negative
circumstances. Make community deposits.
Chief Fager relates that the products from this un-
leashing have been nothing short of amazing. “We have
reinvented not only our value basis but our work culture.
We ask that professional interactions be as important as
the high-speed police work that is easily gravitated to. Our
employees have constructed phenomenal programs and
partnerships with some of the most influential governmen-
tal and corporate entities, with people who influence policy,
and people who define philanthropy. Possibly as important
as anything, we have rekindled the passion and awareness
in many as to what this profession actually provides and
means to the community.”
The Hawthorne Police Department has paved a new
way in developing programs not only benefiting the ‘Haw-
thorne’ mission, but ones that agencies across the country
are replicating equally. Make that, across the world! The
most prominent, ‘Coffee with a Cop’, highlighted in the
White House 2015 Final Report of the President’s Task Force on
21st Century Policing, now has international presence in 16
countries. But it doesn’t end there; here are a few of their
highlighted programs:
BUILDING TRUST AND COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ‘COFFEE WITH A COP ’
The Hawthorne Police Department launched ‘Coffee
with a Cop’ in 2011 after an extensive brainstorming session.
They realized that a more personal and engaging way to
communicate with the residents of the city was needed.
Tired of the traditional “Q & A” Town Hall meeting con-
cepts, Chief Fager tasked the newly created ‘Community
Affairs Unit’ with coming up with a way to do it, and a
way for cops to make it work. Pioneers, Sergeant Chris
WINTER 2017 | California Police Chief
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