Cuban police - open to conversations, patch swaps?
 

I and a few friends will be taking a short trip to Havana in a few weeks. I work in Law Enforcement, and it's not uncommon to find foreign cops overseas to chat. Sometimes we'll swap uniform patches, have a meal, that kind of thing.

My Spanish is decent - conversational, if not technical. Do you think it'd be reasonable to try such a thing in Cuba, or could it backfire or reflect badly on either side?

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

Bear in mind that:
Cuba is not your typical "overseas" destination.
You have no idea how police are regarded by local residents.
Relations between the U.S. and Cuba are not yet normalized.
There are strict regulations about photographing military and police installations and personnel.
You have no idea how police are regarded by the Cuban government.
You have no idea how the Cuban government might regard foreigners having meetings with police officials, even local officers.

I don't know about cops, but ordinary Cubans were willing to interact with our group. Of course, I went with a church group, so our interactions were with members of our "sister" diocese, but no one was hostile.

I'm going to bring some uniform patches and hope I can work out a trade or two - it's a fairly worldwide tradition among Law Enforcement, and I've had luck with it in some pretty unconventional destinations. Just walk up, introduce yourself, and ask if they want to trade - if you get the universal cop language for "get the bleep away from me", you move on. If it works, great, if not, no worries.

It's a good idea. My firefighter friend does this all over the world (including Cuba) and has a great time doing it. Cops will be the same.