Freeze!
A Connecticut police department has a sweet new ride — a customized ice cream truck paid for by the sale of legal weed.
Tax money from Danbury’s two cannabis dispensaries funded the $37,000 purchase of a “copsicle truck” for use in community relations and other public events.
The ice cream, including Bomb Pops, Chipwich sandwiches, and Klondike bars, is all donated by residents or area businesses, and good-humored cops recently handed out the treats at two local summer camps.
“The campers were thrilled to meet the police officers and, of course, enjoy the free ice cream,” said Susan Hitchcock, Site Director for Danbury Summer Camp. “It was a great treat; our staff and our campers were appreciative that the copsicle truck came to visit.”
Alex Relyea, a sergeant in the Danbury PD’s community services division, was inspired last year while vacationing on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee when he learned of a cool new ride in nearby Barnstead, the brainchild of its chief of police Paul Poirier.
“The whole ride back, I kept thinking that I had to get an ice cream truck for Danbury,” said Relyea, 39.
“I convinced the mayor to give us the money.”
“It’s an opportunity to build on community policing and to show kids that the police are here, they’re your friends and they want to help you,” said Mayor Roberto Alves.
“I want to grow our police department to keep our community safe, but cops do so much more than that.”
Relyea reached out to Poirier, a nearly 40-year veteran of law enforcement, who
created the first copsicle truck in 2022.
He has since started a small-business retrofitting ice cream trucks, sometimes even rehabbing 50-year-old junkers into police vehicles.
“To see all the negativity that’s out there around law enforcement, I just knew that something like this would put us in a good light,” Poirier said.
“These trucks build bridges in the community, that’s why I did it.”
Danbury’s copsicle truck won’t be frozen out once summer ends.
“My phone is ringing off the hook with people who want to see the truck and businesses who want to donate,” Relyea said.
“I mean, who doesn’t like ice cream?”