One of the goals of newly sworn-in Wareham Police Chief Kevin Walsh is to improve community relations, and on Thursday morning, he sat down with some residents for a cup of coffee at resident Bob White's weekly "Coffee Hour."

“You’ve got to have things like (Coffee Hour) so people know that you’re out there and you care about them,” said Walsh. “We have to go back to basics. I want our guys to know the communities better.”

Coffee Hour, which is held in the Community Room at Agawam Village, is a weekly, informal sit-down that sees people of interest or prominence mix it up with townsfolk on a weekly basis. Walsh reached out to White, who organizes the meetings, about being this week’s guest speaker, and fielded questions and discussed issues ranging from the recent blizzard to crime to plans for summer staffing.

At the meeting, Walsh and guests covered a variety of topics.

On the recent snowstorm: “The SUV’s make a big difference now. We did very well. The Humvees that we have are invaluable…And the driving ban — that helps us out immensely.”

On social media: “This new age stuff kind of scares me. I’m old school when it comes to that stuff,” he said, but he noted that he’s coming around to accepting Facebook posts from the department.

On School Resource Officer Karl Baptiste: “The amount of stuff that Karl does is not even known,” he said, noting that not only is Baptiste at the schools for safety, but he’s also a mentor to the students. “The kids love him. That’s a very important position. It’s well worth it.”

“This is what we want — to have kids communicating,” said resident Laura Roderick, who attended the meeting.

On some of his biggest challenges: “(One of my biggest challenges is) working within the budget. (I’m asking) for more patrol officers — we’re down a ton of guys right now. We have to build that patrol force back up,” he said, noting retirements and people out injured as a reason for a drop in the number of patrol officers, which he said is currently about 9 or 10. “The biggest challenge is getting more people on the force. I don’t want to be totally reactive. I want to be proactive, too.”

He also added that the department would be hiring about 20 seasonal patrol officers for the upcoming summer starting in July.

“We’ve got a great summer force. The last few years, they’ve been really professional."

“I see them riding bikes around Onset,” said White, "and I’m happy to see them.”

The 53-year-old Walsh, who grew up in Onset, is in his 30th year on the force. A current resident of West Wareham, Walsh started out as a summer officer, then served as a patrol officer. After four years there, he was promoted to detective, where he served for “12 or 13 years.” He then became a sergeant, then a lieutenant, and after serving as “acting” and “interim” police chief, he was sworn in officially on January 13.

“It's good to come in (to the position) from your hometown and people know who you are,” said Walsh.

Some of the residents in attendance spoke to the fact that Walsh is from Wareham, making it easier for him assess certain situations and deal with the town’s people.

“You know the area,” said Roderick. “We don’t have an outsider in there. We have a lot of respect for you. You know (the people). You know where they’re at. It makes us feel good and safe.”

“You’ve earned our respect,” she added.