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'We Have to be More Human,' Top NYPD Official Says of Retraining Program

By Katie Honan | December 4, 2014 6:18pm
 The retraining, which is already underway at the NYPD's academy, will be given to all 22,000 police officers in the city. Mayor Bill de Blasio said it's an important step to repairing community relations with police.
The retraining, which is already underway at the NYPD's academy, will be given to all 22,000 police officers in the city. Mayor Bill de Blasio said it's an important step to repairing community relations with police.
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DNAinfo/Katie Honan

NEW YORK CITY — The NYPD's top training official said that officers have to be "more human" in their interactions with the community as the department announced an unprecedented three-day retraining course focused on the foundations, techniques and skills of policing, officials said.

It’s the first training of its kind in the NYPD’s history, and all members — from the executive staff to police officers — will be given refreshers on the foundations, techniques and tactical skills within the department.

"We have to be more human," said the NYPD's new Deputy Commissioner of Training Michael Julian, who also emphasized tamping down the "machismo" some officers display.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton also said that racism has no place in the department.

The formal announcement comes a day after the city announced a body camera pilot program for police officers and after protests against following a Staten Island grand jury’s office’s decision not indict the police officer who put Eric Garner in a chokehold, resulting in his death.

“This tragedy is raising a lot of tough questions,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “There’s tremendous resolve here in this city to answer those questions, to get it right, to move forward.”

The training, which is already underway at the NYPD’s academy in Queens, and will cost the city $35 million this year, according to de Blasio and Commissioner Bill Bratton.

All officers should be retrained by June 2015, according to First Deputy Commissioner Ben Tucker, who created the program along with Julian, who was hired to help Bratton rework the NYPD.

"Here in the training that we just saw, the seeds are being planted for a very different reality," de Blasio said.

Previously, officers only received firearm retraining, but didn’t have a refresher on dealing with police interaction and other skills, Bratton said.

Now they’ll be brought back in to work on interactions and the “cognitive” skills of policing, Tucker said.

Day one focuses on the foundations of police work — “service, justice, fundamental fairness” and continues with working on respect and the “power of influence,” according to a rundown of the program.

On the second day, officers focus on “smart policing technique” including legal issues and communication, including deflecting negative comments and “understanding ego and abuse of authority.”

A “machismo” in some police officers is found to be a bigger problem than racism, Julian said.

The final day of training will focus on "tactical skills," with a portion devoted to control holds and takedowns and other moves meant to safely subdue a suspect.

The program will hopefully improve relations between police and the community, and Bratton vowed to fix the attitudes between the two the way he vowed to fix crime 20 years ago in New York City.

The mayor, who was criticized Thursday by the police union's president, said the training is designed mostly for police officers, who deserve respect and an investment into their careers.

“This training is much more about the vast majority of our officers who chose this profession because they wanted to help people, who are willing to risk their lives because they wanted to help people, and who want to do what’s right,” he said.

The officers “deserve more training for the complexity of what they’re facing, they deserve the pop to get the best possible preparation for what they’re facing every day.”