Police chief continues community engagement events

By Leah Rainwater

Ever since being announced as St. Joseph’s police chief about a year ago, Paul Luster has made the most of a method to connect with the community, one that starts with a simple cup of coffee.

Luster has participated in “Coffee with the Chief” about three times now. On Thursday morning, he continued the event at Cup of Joe Coffee.

He said this event has not only been helpful for the community but his team as well.

“We’ve met a lot of people, I think a lot of times there’s misunderstandings cause we don’t communicate well with each other sometimes, so sometimes there’s been people that have brought concerns and they didn’t realize that we are actually handling it cause that information wasn’t passed down,” Luster said. “We’ve been brought new concerns where we’ve been able to help, and like I said, a lot of people come by just to introduce themselves, which it’s good to meet the community.”

One St. Joseph community member says “Coffee with the Chief” has been a positive experience for her so far.

“To be able to meet ‘em and put a face with the name and have some positive interaction with ‘em cause I think a lot of people think, ‘Police, oh no,’ and so it gives us a chance to be able to humanize them,” said Colleen Denton.

Luster said the informal conversations are what leads to the humanization.

“We encourage just a real informal, open format, so I think it’s very important as a department to engage with the community to really, what I call, have these conversations, these contacts that aren’t enforcement based,” said Luster. “You haven’t called me to your house for a call, we haven’t pulled you over for speeding. This is just informal, so it can be anything. We encourage come by, just introduce yourself, or if you have concerns or issues, bring them to us and let’s just have a casual conversation over a cup of coffee and see if we can solve those problems.”

Denton said this event has been a great opportunity to not let her past be reflected on who she is today.

“So I’m wanting to bring the message from our church into the jails, but I have a lengthy background and so I wanted to be able to talk to them and get to know them,” said Denton. “And to let them know how I am now and not who I was, cause on paper it doesn’t look good, I’m a recovered addict, and so this’ll help them know who I am and get to feel for who I am today and now who I was yesterday.”

Luster said community members can keep an eye out for an announcement for the next “Coffee with the Chief” on the St. Joseph Police Department’s social media, or the St. Joseph Community Calendar.

“We try and do one a quarter, so about every three months, so I think we’re looking at maybe, uh, we were up here on the north side this time, I think we’re looking at the south side next time, probably here around the late summer/early fall.”