Is it true what they say about cops loving to eat doughnuts or did some cartoonist just make that up? We’ll have to dig into the history of police work to find out why, but cops and doughnuts are definitely an item.

When I say "doughnuts" I’m talking about Dunkin’ Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Mister Doughnut, and all the independents. You can accept as fact that cops love doughnuts-but then so does everybody else.

The reason for cartoons showing two cops sitting car-to-car in front of a doughnut shop is that’s about the only place cops had to eat back in the Forties and Fifties. That’s how the legend of cops-and-doughnuts got started.

Doughnut shops were the only places street cops could afford. Many restaurants were too expensive for every day eating. Fast-food stores didn’t come on the scene until the early Sixties when McDonald’s and Hardee’s began showing up.

When fast-food stores started dishing out food, cops flocked to them. As good as doughnuts are, cops knew a more balanced meal is better-if you can call a burger and fries balanced.

When gasoline service stations converted to convenience stores, cops started showing up there for mid-shift snacks. Convenience store operators started giving cops free coffee with the hope of encouraging them to come around more often. A police car in front of a business is a pretty good deterrent to crime.

Nowadays, free coffee is considered a no-no because of state-mandated police ethical requirements. In some jurisdictions, accepting even a small portion of free goodies can get a cop fired. Much of that policy resulted from the public perception that freebies unfairly encouraged law enforcement favors. Were food and coffee freebies good or bad? It no longer matters-now freebies are illegal.