Politeness training on way for NYPD
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton shake hands with NYPD officers form the 25th Precincts 3rd Platoon during their roll call on Feb. 27, 2014. Mayor de Blasio announced a new training curriculum for NYPD cadets. Credit: Charles Eckert
The NYPD's encounters with the public will soon begin with a polite introduction and end "on a positive note" under a new "Seven Steps to Positive Community Interactions" curriculum announced Thursday by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner William J. Bratton.
The new training will roll out soon at the Police Academy and at in-service training, though no time table was laid out.
"Cops get in more trouble with their mouths than they do with any of the tools we give them -- clubs, guns," Bratton said. "We injure very few people in this city making arrests . . . but we do tend to injure an awful lot of people through our language, and so the idea is to begin to formulate new language for all of our officers that might help to defuse a situation rather than escalate it."
The plan's other steps include actively listening, keeping an open mind, being patient, knowing about available agency resources, and aiming to address a person's needs.
De Blasio said the new training would help repair what he sees as a rift between the NYPD and the communities they serve -- a problem he believes has been exacerbated by "the stop-and-frisk era" of the Bloomberg administration.
