Welcome to the Police Station, How May We Help You?
At the New York City Police Academy, in Queens, thirty-five civilians sat in a lecture hall for the final day of their training to become “community guides,” the N.Y.P.D.’s version of maître d’s or Walmart greeters. The guides—in a new hybrid role devised to bridge hospitality and law enforcement—will greet citizens who walk into a police precinct. The lesson under way was titled “Effective Communication.” A PowerPoint slide read, “What is emotional contagion?” It showed a pie-chart graph with the caption “The spoken word is only 7% of effective communication.” A student raised his hand. Before the guide job, which pays thirty-two thousand dollars a year, he had worked at Target. “Sometimes you get into, you know, a situation where the customer thinks they’re right,” he said.
“You’re not going to turn blood into wine,” the instructor, an officer named William Garcia, said, taking a drink from a can of Monster Energy. “Don’t tell people to calm down. That’s a trigger word.”
The deputy police chief and commanding officer of the Police Academy, Frederick Grover, jumped in. “Maybe your car was stolen—you might be intimidated walking into a precinct,” he said. “There’s a lot going on.” He added, “Visitors won’t necessarily leave happy.” The goal, he said, is “about making it satisfying.”
The community-guide program grew out of a customer-service working group that the N.Y.P.D. created after last year’s anti-police protests. Juanita Holmes, the department’s chief of patrol, said, “We aren’t going to get on Zagat, but you should be able to pull up reviews for your precinct.” The department currently uses a “How did we do?” survey system. “When we started—wasn’t so good,” Holmes said.
Kayleigh Robertson, who has a degree in forensics and used to work at Dairy Queen, told a visitor, “People get crazy when it comes to their ice cream, so I had to deal with yelling, people throwing milkshakes, people who are stressed over random things—and keep my cool.” Those skills, she thinks, will translate well to the precinct house: “I’ll use a ‘hi,’ gentle, ready-to-assist-you tone, not a ‘what do you want?’ tone.” The orientation guide for greeters reads, “Do not permit people to adversely influence you into showing anger. There is an old saying: ‘he, who angers you, conquers you.’ ” Also: “Avoid preening.”
The guides had sat through such lessons as “Introduction to Police Jargon,” “The Role of the Unarmed Civilian,” and “The Mystery of Active Listening.” They were quizzed on converting standard time to military time. Next was a session on L.G.B.T.Q. issues, in which members of the force shared their coming-out stories. The group workshopped addressing civilians as “sir, ma’am, they.”
A woman raised her hand and asked, “Can we pep this up? Can we do some scenarios?” The academy has three floors of multimillion-dollar “mock environments,” stage sets in which the city plays itself—multiple courtrooms, a subway car, a police van in Central Park, a public-housing unit, a bodega, and a bar (“New York City Bistro”)—where recruits practice responding to, say, a bar fight or a disturbed person in a deli. (The answer to the woman’s question was no.)
“This is needed because of the history the cops have left,” Francelis Camilo, who wore a navy suit and had her bright-red hair in a bun, said. She’d worked at Chipotle and a daycare center before becoming a guide. “My friends were definitely skeptical. I didn’t tell so many people at first.” She hopes to help create a serene space: “The community needs someone not in uniform. I’ll be the first person you see. Then maybe you don’t have to be so tense around police officers.” (The dress code for greeters is business casual.)
Angela Morrison, who used to work at a post office, hopes to make her precinct “more of a home setting, instead of feeling like you’re stepping into a lion’s den.” She said, “As a Black woman, I know of course there’s gonna be racism, but at least there’ll be a familiar face, and that helps sort of deflect from the image the police have.”
As part of a criminal-justice lesson, the class listened to a presentation on “media versus reality.” The instructor told the students, “A police show that gave an accurate account of police life would be about officers on patrol dealing with confused, irritable, or unhappy lovers, parents, and kids.”
“Nobody wants to live in reality. Reality sucks,” Morrison said. “Cops are a lot nicer on TV. Reality-wise, that’s not what we’ve seen.” She went on, “For most people, the precinct is a scary place.” She views her new job as “like being a hostess at a very fancy restaurant. I’ve worked in salons. I’ve dealt with people. At the end, I’ll say, ‘I hope you come back.’ ” ♦
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November 15, 2021 at 06:05PM
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Welcome to the Police Station, How May We Help You? - The New Yorker
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