“Not gonna be much criminal activity around here,” I muttered to myself as I gingerly maneuvered my car into a parking space between two Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department cruisers. I had already passed about a half-dozen of the white patrol cars on East Washington Street, Johnson Avenue and Ritter. I entered the coffee shop, where the buzz of activity was at a higher level than I usually encounter at 2:00 pm, and as I waited for my Americano and blueberry muffin, a woman with a bright smile came up to me. “Hi! Are you here for coffee with a cop?” I looked into the large room behind her and saw that, indeed, there were cops in the coffee house. “I was just here for the coffee,” I told her.
Helen Jackson introduced herself as a Victim Assistance Counselor for the IMPD, and explained that the department has a community outreach program (which we have mentioned in this publication) that encourages residents to interact with the officers who serve in their district. She introduced me to the officer standing with her, Roman Williams-Ervin, who greeted me with a firm and friendly handshake. I made my way to the rear of the blue-packed coffee shop and found a seat; my intention was to work on a column for the paper, but I could not help but be interested in the conversations that flowed around me.
East District Commander Roger Spurgeon comfortably headed up a table of officers, and smiled “nice camera” when he saw my Nikon D3400. A person who may have been a neighborhood resident placed a chair next to the commander, and engaged him in an earnest discussion, which I assume from the resident’s serious expression, was centered around a policing concern. As I watched Ms. Jackson work the room, I decided to get some shots of her, Officer Williams-Ervin and his partner, Officer Stacy Riojas. When I returned to my coffee with a muffin, a couple seated next to me pointed to my copy of The Weekly View and asked, “Do you shoot for them?” I confessed that I do, and Tina Coffman said, “That’s our only newspaper.” Her husband, Tom Dilger, said, “It’s our Wall Street Journal.” The couple sat in chairs at a table next to mine, where they had been playing a card game against their computer. Ms. Jackson listened to a concern expressed by the couple, and handed them off to Executive Officer Columbus Ricks, who addressed their fears, partly by assuring them that the renovation of the Rivoli Theater was likely to “revitalize the neighborhood” and have an impact on crime. And lest anyone think that the gathered troops were distracted from policing, I saw an officer enter into a serous, whispered conversation with the commander; as the officer left, I heard someone say that he “had a run.” The “Blue Crew” was still on the job.
I wandered into the middle of what I believe to be an immensely important community gathering, had my coffee and muffin, met Tina Coffman and Tom Dilger and a crowd of the “Blue Crew,” including Officer Tamar Harper, of the East District Community Relations Unit, who gave me a some informational fliers. And on that day, the gathering of the troops did indeed, make sure that there was no criminal activity in that spot.
Your next opportunity for copper coffee is March 8th, at Pia’s Urban Cafe Coffee Shop, 2834 E. Washington St.
