From the Arcata Police Department website.

It’s nearing midnight. You’re on your way back home from doing whatever it is you do, and as you approach a stop sign, you barely tap the brakes, swing through the intersection and keep moving. The fact that you just whipped a California Stop is as far away from your mind as you are from Mars. A pair of LED headlights flick on in the rearview and permanently damage your retinas. Blue and red lights spin, your mind whirls and all you can think is: Why? There was no one around!

Get a chance to ask this Saturday, when the Arcata Police Department will host an open house and barbecue at the police station from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

APD hopes it’ll be a learning opportunity for people who don’t often interact with police officers.

“I think when we deal with people, it’s generally during times of emergencies, high stress, high emotions,” APD Sergeant Brian Hoffman told the Outpost yesterday. “I think the vast majority of people don’t have a lot of contact with the police, and so there can be this stand-off-ishness. So it’s really just getting people to come down and meet everyone and let people realize we’re just like everybody else — fathers, brothers and sons and daughters.”

Hoffman says past events like this one have been successful.

“I think if you ask a lot of people about the local police in the area, I would think that they would say that Arcata PD is the most empathetic, and we really go out of our way to try to have a connection with people who are dealing with them,” Hoffman said. “Generally, it’s during the worst times in people’s lives when we’re called in. So it’s good for officers too to be able to see people and recognize ‘Hey, there are people that like what you do and are glad we’re here.’”

The Arcata Police Department is located at 736 F Street, Arcata.