Coffee With a Cop in Albuquerque

 The Albuquerque Scientology Volunteer Ministers organize a Coffee With a Cop luncheon to bridge differences and bring the community and police together to tackle common goals.

Goodwill and friendship were the order of the day March 13 at “Coffee With a Cop,” a community event hosted by the city’s Scientology Volunteer Ministers. Albuquerque police officers and neighbors sat down together over coffee and lunch to get to know each other better.

Coffee with a Cop is a national community engagement activity designed to break down barriers between police officers and those they serve by providing an opportunity to talk, ask questions, voice concerns and get to know one another.

To break the ice, Albuquerque’s finest brought a classic 1962 Ford Galaxie police car—complete with the sirens, lights and police radio equipment of the day.

The Volunteer Ministers erected their big yellow tent, displaying information on their “Tools for Life,” practical solutions for the everything from relationship problems to job stress, raising children, coping with financial difficulties and overcoming drug abuse.

Discussions over sandwiches and coffee ranged from what it’s like to be a police officer to the link between drugs and crime, and how community groups can work with police to solve some of the issues the city faces.

Drugs are a pervasive problem in Albuquerque as they are around the nation. Nearly three out of four overdose deaths statewide involve opioids of some kind, including prescription pain medication and heroin.

Crime and violence are byproducts of illicit drug use, which also impacts so many other aspects of life, from immorality to aborted education and ruined lives and families.

To address this issue of common concern, the Volunteer Ministers provided a seminar on “Answers to Drugs,” one of the chapters of the Scientology Handbook based on technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard and made available to anyone wishing to learn how to help people with this serious and widespread situation. Training on this and 18 other courses is available online free of charge on the Scientology website.

The Church of Scientology Volunteer Minister program is a religious social service created in the mid 1970s by L. Ron Hubbard. Anyone of any culture or creed may train as a Volunteer Minister and use these tools to help their families and communities.

In creating the Volunteer Ministers program, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a Volunteer Minister and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance.”