If you saw all the police vehicles parked outside of Ceres’ new In-N-Out Burger eatery on Wednesday last week you might have assumed some major incident was going down. But the large collection of officers was part of a community outreach called “Burgers with Badges” in the same vein as “Coffee with a Cop.”
Officers and equipment were on hand from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to mingle with the lunchtime crowd.
“It’s just another opportunity for us to get out and interact with the community and get to know them and have them get to know us in a neutral spot,” said Sgt. Jeff Godrey. “We’re going to try to do more of these.”
The Ceres family of Hunter Tapia, 5, stayed a while, letting him visit with police canine Banner and Officer Christian Izquierdo. Moments later the inquisitive child took a tour of the Lenco armored vehicle. Officer Matt Vierra allowed the tyke to sit in the driver’s seat and showed how the PA system worked. Hunter asked about one button and was told it’s how officers can depress the brake without lighting up the brake lights in the dark at times they are trying to sneak up on a location.
Also attending with his three children was newly-seated Ceres City Councilman Daniel Martinez.
The In-N-Out event just happened to coincide with the monthly County Integrated Traffic Enforcement event whereby motorcycle officers from other cities came into Ceres to hand out tickets to violators. The saturation enforcement event rotates through different communities to crack down on speeders, red light runners and those who make dangerous turning movements. When the collection of 20 motorcycle officers joined in the Burgers with Badges event at noon they had issued about 200 tickets for violations, estimated Ceres Police Sgt. Travis Hudson.
Agencies joining in were Turlock, Modesto, Oakdale, Newman, Riverbank, Patterson and Sheriff’s Department.
Sgt. Godfrey said his department has for years been staging a “Coffee with a Cop” event at local Starbucks and will be hosting a “Burritos with Badges” event at Chipotle in April. Ceres Police also participates in annual National Night Out events in Whitmore Park.
“Anything we as an organization can do to build relationships with the community goes back to our core values and all of our philosophies,” added Godfrey.
