Why I Walk the Beat

...Fully half of Ne .. York's 8,000 APOs are minorities and more than a third are women {who comprise only 7 percent of the paid police force) "Where a large percentage of blacks and Hispanics live, there are a lot of black and Hispanic auxiliaries, " says Lt Lawrence Abrams, personnel director of the New York APO program "They are superb, " he adds "They are irrepJaceable " Why, then, are auxiliaries not in wider use...

...In a time of unending flSCal crises for local governments, the APOs cost taXpayers almost nothing...

...Only New York City has a truly large-scale APO program, and just a handful of other cities have any active volunteeers at all...

...Frequently they help the pald police keep gawkers ~way from the scene of an accident or a crime and control harmless crowds at parades and block parties-all necessary work, but not the best use of a paid officer's time The usual tour runs u.,"uil about 11 p m and, even in the most dangerous neighborhoods, is usually uneventful APOs in poorer areas tend to field more complaints about social services, but their presence inevitably pushes the crime aside, at least for a while Stories of APO heroism abound-people pulled from burning cars, muggers foiled, Heimlich maneuvers maneuve,ed-bu~ they are far from the :!orm The tj-pical activities of an APO tend to be routine, even boring The most exciting ent,y in my own log book is my description of directing traffic on Columbus Avenue when a moving va..--: blocked a side street Still...

...says the Police Foundation's Murphy "You have to overcome the opposition of the unions to get the au.xiliaries involved, " adds Minneapolis police chief Anthony Bouza, previously a well-known gadfly in the New York City department, who has greatly expanded the use of auxiliaries in his city and thinks Nev...

...Indeed...

...it has 23,400 now Also, most police training is geared now toward the automobile, and police unions know that their members prefer the climate-controlled working conditions of their cars to the al fresco beats on the sidewalk Auxiliaries are the logical choice to mOve into the gap, rot just for fighting crime but also, and just as important, for building new bridges between the police and the community One of the great virtues of the APO program is that its makeup in each precinct reflects the neighborhood's population For a police department that is 82 percent white in a city that is only 60 percent white, that makes an important difference...

...But in so doing we provide a service that has all but vanished from most city streets A typical night on APO duty begins a little before 7 pm with a rag-tag roll-call at the precinct house After the coordinator assigns partners and beats, we head om by 7:30 Sensibly, the APOs are usually sent into areas in the precinct where the most people arebut not necessaril) the most crime As deterrents more than crook-catchers, APOs belong in areas where they sho"'" the flag to the largest numbers of people and leave the skilled work of catching bad guys to the paid police...

...Other signs of hostility are less SUbtle...

...at accident scenes, Twins and VIking games, summer festivals-they are essential...

...But so, too, is much police work routine and well within the abilities of volunteers...

...We use them...

...If auxiliary police programs serve cities well, they also enrich the lives of the volunteers themselves In my first four nights out, my partnerS were an unemployed social worker, a Fordham undergraduate, the president of an OfflCe temp agency, and Nev...

...Our classes were one night a week for 13 -weeks, with a compact 58-page, loose-leaf training manual supplementing the classes...

...Unfortunately, a fuE-fledged return to foot patrols by paid officers may now be almost impossible...

...APOs are trained in first aid and know how to deal with car accidents and restaurant chokings until the ambulance arrives...

...But offthereCord the signs are different Many auxiliaries are cOnfidentially advised by their friends on the force not to identify themSelves as APOs when using the ",alkietalkies...

...some paid cops regularly jam auxiliary transmissions...

...I kno\V my '"ork makes a difference I can see the appreciation in the faces in the neighborhood Drunks and bums stay away from my beat Noisy kids quiet do .. r; Old people walk confidently when they see my uniform As anyone who lives in a big city knows, the cop on the beat largely has gone the way of the doctor's house call In attempting ;'0 increase mobility, spread thin resources, and cut "response time'?.-all worthy aims-in the middle of ,his century the police embraced the automobile and haven't let go What the cops didn't prepare for .. as the ,esulting loss of contact with the community-and the consequent decline in public order ''A police car tra\els down the street like a tank, " former New York City :-v1ayor Robert Wagner once said "It can't see you...

...With more elaborate training and emphasis on guns this new force would surely attract fev.;er volunteers and lead to more conflicts between APOs and paid police...

...The APOs will not solve America's crime problems, but they can improve the quality of life for city dwellers everywhere...

...We had one class on first aid and two on self-defense, primarily on how to use the nightstick (something APOs almost never have to do) The training is laissez-faire and rightly so In a move that goes completely in the wrong direction, however, a New York City Council member, Susan D. Alter, has introduced legislation to create an armed volunteer reserve police force...

...D.C , police reserve, training is twice a week for three hours over a period of 10 to 16 weeks Small wonder that there are only 200 auxiliaries in Los Angeles and 150 in Washington To its credit, New York realizes that it must keep its demands on volunteers reasonable if the force is to be of significant size...

...it is hard to imagine any mayor telling the voters he is going to replace the police with volunteers...

...The real issue, " says Bouza, "is you have the police saying, 'everyone else runs away from trouble and we run at it and put our necks on the line-and here you have some schmuck coming along and doing that job for nothing.' The unions don't want their jobs diminished in that way " Bouza gets to the heart of the issue...

...And well they should...

...One answer, in part, can be St.'en on the bathroom walls of the 20th precinct "AUX...

...The attitude is changing now that were getting a younger department, .. according to the auxiliary's Lev...

...We tell the kids on Broadway to look before crossing the street...

...Why I Walk the Beat Police Officer Vinnie Lupinacci of Manhattan's 20th precinct is an authority on all things, his particular areas of expertise being the New York Yankees and the human race Regarding the latter, Lupinacci has a universal piece of advice, especially for what he calls "my kids'-the all-volunteer auxiliary police unit in the 20th, whose work he coordinates The phrase is Common Sense Dictates-CSD to Vinnie's "kids"and as one of them, I can testify to its calming reasonableness in the face of the chaos of big city law enforcement What Vinnie knows-indeed what common sense dictates-is that auxiliary cops work Uniformed but unarmed, aged 17 to 60, they patrol New York's streets on foot When asked what exactly I do one night a week for about three or four hou s, I often find it hard to come up with much Mostly my partner and I Just walk...

...Johnny Carson's monologues notwithstanding, New York has less crime per capita than many other big cities -Jeffrey Toobin Jeffrey Toobin has been an auxiliary police officer in New York City for the past year...

...The relationship has improved immensely, " says personnel director Abrams...

...For the record, most New York police officials are quick to deny any bad blood between the paid cops and the APOs...

...The legendary inactivity of the council, however, will probably save the public from this wrongheaded proposal...

...it doesn't know you " The little encounters, the gossip-the jee...

...We suppiement, but do not replace, the police, who should embrace us as a way to make their jobs easier rather than fight us as a threat to their turf We smile at the couples slurping their designer ice cream on Columbus Avenue...

...When President Reagan visited Minneapolis in June, Bouza's police reservistS were the largest force there...

...Most other cities have no program at all-or have one with such forbidding requirements that all but the most zealous of police buffs are turned away In Los Angeles, for exam pie, the Police Line Reserves train at the police academy part time for nine months, after which they must serve two eight-hour shifts per month, an,d are required to carry police revolvers on patrol For the \'vashington...

...Budget cutbacks have been so deep that there just aren't enough officers to go around New York City, for example, had 3I,79i cops in 1970...

...the people i work with are none-too-fond of their nightsticks and would be horrified at the thought of carrying a gun...

...Police and weapons buffs seem to be an almost invisible minority...

...COPS STEAL REAL COPS JOBS ""HO\X,' WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF SOMEONE CAME TO YOUR OFFICE AND DID YOUR JOB FOR FREE "The paid police, in short, are not fond of us "Many of the unions call them scabs...

...York has vastly underused this resource "The first thing the unions say...

...Bouza continues, ''is that the auxiliaries take their jobs, but even they know that's not true...

...Contrary to police tradition, there is no commemorative plaque on the wall of his precinct Despite these tensions, the New York police have made the auxiliaries an important, if not fully integrated, part of the force...

...of the beat-are gone...

...York's premier hairdresser for poodles...

...And the auxiliaries may be an important reason why...

...In my precinct, on Manhattan's West Side, APOs usually work Broadway and Columbus Avenue in the 70s and 80s, a..-nong the most heavily traveled thoroughfares in the city Once the APOs leave the precinct house, .. alkietalkies in hand, their basic job is to keep their eyes and ears open Most of the work comes to us: lost visitors ask directions, motorists ask about parking rules, residents complain about burned out street lights The most dramatic work for auxiliaries is related to injury or sickness...

...Lord knows what we would do without them, " he says...

...We demonstrate that when we can't always count on the government, we can sometimes count on ourselves...

...We share only a commitment to the Upper West Side, an interest in police work, and a fondness for "Hill Street Blues...

...One auxiliary, David Freed, was killed in Central Park in 1976...

...police work is hazardous and cops should be paid fairly for their risks...

...In contract negotiations and public relations, the police rely heavily on the danger of their jobs to earn both sympathy and cash...