• The New York Times once said, “No profession is as closely identified with food as police work is with doughnuts.” The correlation between doughnuts and cops began long ago. What started as a simple convenience grew into a symbiotic relationship. Here’s the story of how that happened.
• Often, police are on duty overnight while most citizens are asleep and nearly all businesses are closed. Nighttime food options were limited in the days before gas station convenience stores became common. All-night restaurants and fast food joints such as Denny’s, IHOP, McDonalds, and Taco Bell were not yet on the scene. It’s been estimated that in the 1960s, only 10 percent of restaurants in the U.S. were open all night.
• If they needed a place to get out of the weather, have a bathroom break, or sit and rest for a while, cops generally had the choice of a donut shop or an all-night diner at a truck stop. Even after squad cars became the norm, officers often required a quiet table to complete paperwork, fill out forms, and write reports. Sometimes, they just wanted a peaceful corner to decompress from stressful events on the job, or a place to meet with other cops to discuss the day’s events.
• Donut shops were either open all night or were the first to open at dawn. A single baker might be on the job, toiling all night to have a fresh batch of pastries ready for the 9-to-5 crowd to pick up on their way to work. This made them prime targets for robberies.
• Bakeries encouraged the patronage of police because who’s going to rob a place where cop cars are constantly pulling in? Often, the bakeries provided the donuts and coffee free of charge. Some bakeries even set aside special spots for police officers to gather. It was cheaper than hiring security.
• Just at this time, two national chains of donut shops began gathering steam, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts. William Rosenberg, founder of Dunkin’ Donuts, instigated a cop-friendly policy and credited the relationship with boosting the business’s success.
• Carbs and caffeine provide a perfect pick-me-up to break up long hours on duty. The coffee pot is always hot. It’s easier than ordering at an all-night diner, where a sudden call might interrupt the meal at a moment’s notice. If a call comes in, donuts are highly portable. For all these reasons, the cop/donut relationship blossomed and held fast through the years.
• What started as a cultural touchstone morphed into a derogatory Hollywood caricature. However, this cops-and-donuts stereotype is mainly limited to the U.S. and Canada, where donuts are popular. In other countries, cops may favor chips (fries) as in the U.K., or noodle shops in places like the Philippines.
• The cliché is so engrained that protesters at riots have dangled donuts on fishing poles to mock the police. In an episode of the crime show Law and Order terrorists left explosives in a donut box as bait for the police.
• In 2001, an Albuquerque cop was reprimanded for landing a police helicopter in a field next to a donut shop. He was returning to the hangar at the end of a shift. Landing around 2:00 a.m., the officer bought enough donuts to take back to the precinct to share but faced disciplinary measures afterward.
• In short, donut shops provide social, physical, and emotional sustenance for those tasked with the responsibility of keeping the community safe. In return, cops provide the bakery with cheap – or free – security. This reciprocal relationship has served its purpose well. The New York Times reports that donut shops have the lowest rate of robberies among other retail businesses.
