Coffee, conversation and card tricks — Riverhead Police host meet-and-greet events around town

Riverhead Police held five “Coffee with a Cop” sessions across town yesterday, to meet and chat with residents and hear their concerns and ideas.

Officers spent time at four different locations, from Wading River to Jamesport, yesterday morning from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Police returned to  a popular East Main Street delicatessen yesterday evening from 6:30 to 8:30  to chat again with members of the Latino community at a time of day when more residents are likely to be free to talk.

“In the mornings, people are on a mission. They have to get to work, so they want to grab something to eat and get going,” Riverhead Police Detective Byron Perez said. Perez and Officer James Clarkin were seated at one of the picnic tables on the sidewalk outside the door to Village Delicatessen last night, greeting people as they entered and exited the crowded deli.

Perez, the son of Guatemalan immigrants, speaks fluent Spanish and greeted people as they entered the deli, usually to buy a fresh-cooked meal. 

“Buenas noches. ¿Cómo estás?” he said with a broad smile. Many of those he greeted stopped to chat about a variety of things — including the overcrowded housing code just adopted by the Town Board on Tuesday.

One man, who has lived in Riverhead for 22 years, told Perez he supports the code, because it will make residents safer. He said some of the living conditions offered to Latino workers are very unsafe, especially when people rent spaces in basements.

Diana Demasco of Coram sat down for a longer chat, asking them about their work in Riverhead. 

Yesterday morning at Lolly’s Hut, an iconic Riverhead luncheonette on Route 58, where the aroma of sizzling bacon fills the air of the cozy, crowded dining room, Officers Cole Stasiukiewicz and Daniel Hoffman had more than coffee. They opted for breakfast and got a surprise “side” — card tricks performed by a Riverhead resident who learned the craft in an online Master Class he took during the pandemic.

Jim Cioffi, a retired LIRR auditor who now drives a bus part-time for the Riverhead school district, sat down for breakfast with fellow driver and retired Longwood High School math teacher and fellow school bus driver Danny Virgilio. The affable and talkative Cioffi began speaking with the officers seated at the next table and soon offered to show them some card tricks. He went to his car to retrieve a deck of cards he carries with him. After allowing the cops to inspect the deck, proceeded to baffle them with his magic. 

Cioffi told the cops he’s relatively new to Riverhead and really likes living here. It’s a peaceful, beautiful place, he said.

Another new resident, Gerry Ferrara of Glenwood Village, came over to the officers’ table to say hello after having a BLT at Lolly’s counter.  “I just came here for the first time the other day,” he said. Lolly’s gets his approval, as does Riverhead. One thing that bothers him, Ferrara said, is how vehicles, especially pickup trucks, speed on Route 58. He said it’s common for trucks to pass him doing in excess of 55 or 60 mph. Ferrara spoke with the police officers about traffic enforcement challenges on the five-lane roadway, which lacks shoulders for much of its length. Speeding was his only complaint, he said.

Stasiukiewicz and Hoffman are assigned to the Riverhead Police Department’s COPE unit — Community Oriented Police Engagement. The unit focuses on engaging the community, at events like Coffee with a Cop, but also throughout the officers’ regular tours. 

“You get to know the community in a new way,” said Hoffman. 

Stasiukiewicz agreed. “When you’re in a patrol unit, you’re focused on the 911 calls you’re responding to during your whole shift. The COPE unit lets you see the community a whole. You see things from a different perspective.”

Police Chief Ed Frost said today he visited three of the Coffee with a Cop locations yesterday morning. The day went well, the Chief said. There was a lot of conversation between police and residents, which is the goal of the program. 

Coffee with a Cop is a national program first launched in Hawthorne, California in 2011, the result of a brainstorming session on ways to better connect with the community. The events have now been hosted in all 50 states and the program is considered one of the most successful community-oriented policing programs in the country. “Coffee with a Cop Day” was initiated in Riverhead in 2016.