Many restaurants have a policy of giving police officers free cups of coffee or discounted food but a Chicago police officer was suspended for 18 months and recommended for counseling after she demanded free coffee and pastries from area Starbucks.

Most police departments have unwritten rules against officers either accepting or demanding anything free, although those rules generally aren't enforced. Many restaurants feel it enhances safety to have police officers stop in for coffee, a snack or a meal. But officers traditionally offer to pay before a restaurant tells them it's on the house or discounted.

However, that wasn't the case with Chicago Police Officer Barbara Nevers, 55, who reportedly demanded free Starbucks refreshments.

Employees of several area Starbucks stores reportedly allege that Nevers often came in and demanded free Starbucks coffee and pastries.

Nevers reportedly doesn't deny asking for free coffee, but claims she only asked if there were any broken pastries that store employees were going to throw away because she fed them to birds.

Usually patrol officers on duty and in uniform stop for breaks in restaurants on their beats and are given free coffee as a courtesy. However, Nevers was a desk sergeant who often stopped in Starbucks stores near her home when she was in plain clothes and flashed her badge and gun and demanded free coffee.