9 • TIMES, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015 104COP Ready To Get Back On Duty Police Talk New Training Policy Frank Kotnik (standing), 104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol president, addresses the group last Thursday. He is flanked by 104COP Secretary Ronnie Roth (at left) and Vice President Mark Morrison. story and photo by Kelly Marie Mancuso The 104th Precinct Civilian Observation Patrol (104COP) will soon be back to full service, the volunteer group’s president announced during the patrol’s general meeting last Thursday, Feb. 12, at St. Pancras Pfeifer Hall in Glendale. Frank Kotnik said regular patrols of local streets would be relaunched in the coming weeks after the NYPD ordered the group to stand down following last December’s murders of Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in Brooklyn. “The board of directors met last week and we decided that as soon as the weather breaks, we’re going to go back into service,” he said. “We’re not going to be as visible as we were. We’re just going to play it by ear. I don’t want to see anyone out there getting hurt by the weather or anything else.” Meanwhile, local police were also on hand at last Thursday’s meeting to outline dramatic changes to officer training at the NYPD. P.O. Eddie Collado of the 104th Precinct Crime Prevention Unit and Training Officer P.O. Santos were on hand to discuss the change in protocol. According to Officer Santos, the NYPD is breaking from the “impact method” of training in favor of a return to field training. “The way of impact is over,” he stated. “Impact was bad. It was all about going out there and writing summonses. That created a huge division between the community and the police force. That is something that we’re trying to fix.” Under this new approach to training, two rookie officers will be assigned to one field-training officer. Each new officer will work all three tours—day tours, midnights and 4 to 12 p.m. shifts—over a sixmonth period. They will each spend two months working with a field-training officer on each tour. “We are being trained in a different way than I was trained 15 years ago,” Collado explained. “It’s similar but different in terms of how we approach the public, as well as how the public should perceive how we are addressing them.” This new approach to training places greater emphasis on repairing the rift between members of the community and the NYPD, the officers noted. “It’s an active, working relationship that we’re trying to fix,” Santos stated, “Policing is not about activity or paperwork. It’s about interacting with the community. We want the community to have police interaction without that negative connotation where they’re stopping you and all you see are officers and a flashlight.” According to Collado, the entire chain of command will receive the new training. Kotnik announced that the civilian patrol members would also be part of these changes. “We’re going to start to get other types of training,” he explained. According to Kotnik, officers from the Police Academy are expected to retrain GCOP members on new procedures and safety measures. Volunteer patrol members were encouraged to enroll in the Civilian Police Academy training program in College Point. “It’s a fantastic and very educational program,” Kotnik stated. Candidates train once per week for 13 weeks at the academy. EARN EXTRA INCOME TELEPHONE SALESCLASSIFIED AD SALES Experience necessary, but will train. Part-time, flexible hours 5 days a week, 4 hour shifts Qualifications: reliable, punctual, excellent phone and people skills BAYSIDE, QUEENS LOCATION CLOSE TO LIRR SALARY + COMMISSION CALL FOR INTERVIEW 718.224.5863 ext. 228
RT02192015
To see the actual publication please follow the link above