This Is Exactly Why You Think Cops Love Donuts

We recently stumbled upon a video where a guy walked around Hollywood Boulevard and tried to hand-feed donuts to police officers. We good a good chuckle, and it was understood that it’s funny because of the age-old stereotype that police love eating donuts.

As we saw in the video, officers continued to reject the donuts, and said they didn’t like them, so at that moment I started wondering how that stereotype even got attached to law enforcement. I mean, it’s hard to hate donuts, but why do we automatically think of police when it comes to the light and fluffy treats?

We could probably trace it back to the 1950’s, and officers who worked the late night shifts, according to Smithsonian.

Along with the rare 24-hour diners, donut shops were some of the only food spots open late, so that’s where you’d typically find police working those grave hours.

As an added bonus, the donut shop employees felt a little safer knowing that police were consistently stopping by during their after-hour shifts.

This was recently backed by YouTube channel Officer401, which consists of an anonymous police officer who vlogs about several law enforcement topics. In the video, the officer explains that, “a lot of coffee shops and places like McDonald’s… tend to be 24 hours a day. It’s a lot easier to run into a coffee shop, grab a couple donuts,  or scones and peace out.”

There’s a lot more options for late-night eats these days, so you might spot police at Jack In The Box, Denny’s or even McDonald’s, but in the 50’s, donut shops were the spot, and that stigma has stuck with them since.