These are not the droids you are looking for… so why don’t you come along with us…
The Jedi mind control meets Andy of Mayberry school of police work.
"We want to talk people into their cuffs," said Lt. Suzanne St. Jacques, NYPD commanding officer for physical training and tactics. "We want to talk them down into compliance, de-escalate the situation. ... The emphasis right now is the talk down before the takedown."
Even when enforcing the law gets messy, officers "have to have a thick skin," said First Deputy Police Commissioner Benjamin B. Tucker, who oversees the police academy.
"People will goad you. People will say things to you. Face it - not everybody loves a cop," Tucker said. "But even when they don't like you, you have a responsibility to respect them and leave them with their dignity even as you do your job."
Over the three days at the department's new $750 million police academy, officers start in the classroom with instruction on verbal techniques for calming down a combative suspect. The course emphasizes the human side of the job, reminding officers that policing is about helping people.
"A lot of times officers can forget why they came on the job, what brought them to this profession to begin with," said another academy commander, Lt. Bobby Lorne Sheppard. "It's a very noble profession."
An entire day is spent in a gymnasium where instructors teach the latest tactics for taking down uncooperative suspects without putting pressure on the neck or chest.
Soon the academy will also introduce role-playing exercises, like the one with the drunken driver, using elaborate sets made to look like a grocery store, a subway station or a street scene.
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