Training the Finest

“It didn’t happen by design,” he said of a successful career that is in its 28th year.
The commanding officer of the NYPD Police Academy started out studying to be a doctor. After he fell away from that path, his next couple of career moves seemed to happen almost by accident, or at least without a great deal of aforethought.
“I backed into a job with EMS,” he recalled. After that, joining the police academy was a natural next step. Six months later, in June 1982, he graduated as class valedictorian.
The Ridgewood, Queens, native explained why he dropped out after three years of premed. “I was disaffected,” he said. “I was done with college.”
He has no regrets. “I couldn’t have had a more fulfilling career,” he said.
There would be later opportunities to study. In time, he completed his bachelor of science degree and later added an MS and an MA to his name. He regards those degrees as vitally important both in aiding his ascent through the ranks and in his practical day-to-day work.
“I’ve been very lucky to take the education that I really didn’t think I needed when I was 20 years old, before I came into the police department,” said Anderson, who is headquarters vice-president of the NYPD Emerald Society.
Anderson was a captain in the Housing Department Police Department when it merged with the NYPD in 1995. His third post-merger promotion was to deputy chief in 2003. He then added a second gold star to his insignia with his elevation to the rank of assistant chief in 2007 when he took over as commanding officer at the academy.
Anderson had worked for 11 years at the NYPD’s Personnel Bureau, and has been involved with training and human resources through most of his career.
“We get the cream of the crop,” he said, adding that only one out of every 10 candidates is hired.
Many fail physical, medical or psychological tests. Others don’t get past the background check or simply take themselves out of the process.
“We do a good job in identifying people who are ill-suited for police work,” he said.
“That’s not to say that we screen out every single person that is going to have a problem in a 20-year career,” he added. “It would just be impossible to do that.”
In some ways, the six-month period of training at the academy hasn’t differed fundamentally over the years. “It’s designed to take a person who is a civilian and make them ready to go out into the street and do the job of a police officer,” he said.
Training continues after graduation from the academy, and throughout an officer’s career. “It takes a little bit of time once you get out there to become fully acquainted with what the job is really about,” he added.
“The complexity of what is expected of the police officer has only grown over the past 30 years,” he said, not least because the 36,000-member force is on the frontline in the battle against terrorism.
The training has become more interactive. “It’s a lot closer to reality now than it was in 1982,” he said. “We’ve gotten better with some of our training methods.”
New technology helps a great deal.
Trainees receive an iPod that contains the curriculum. “They can look at a lecture that’s been videotaped from an instructor almost anytime they want to,” he said.
One other key change is the way in which the force reflects city’s ethnic and racial makeup. “Our police academy classes over the last 10 years have only gotten progressively more diverse,” he said.
Many recruits are immigrants, or are first-generation Americans. This recalls the department as it was in the early part of the last century when many officers were from or had close family ties to Ireland, Germany, Italy or some other European country.
“We have a similar situation now,” Anderson said.
His Irish connection is through his County Cork-born grandmother. “I’m Irish and English on my mother’s side and Swedish and Finnish on my father’s side,” said Anderson, who is also a member of the NYPD’s Viking Association.
The police department is for its members more than just a job, said Anderson, “so, to have fraternal organizations that celebrate people’s heritage, that makes it just that more special.”
In that spirit, Anderson accepted an invitation to join the board of Ian McGowan’s Winged Fist Organization, which commemorates the Irish American Athletic Association, a major force in U.S. efforts at the Olympic Games in the early 20th century.
“I guess the most active part in my Irish heritage today is that my daughter is a competitive Irish step-dancer,” Anderson said, referring to 13-year-old Kaitlyn.
“We’re out at practice three nights a week, feising probably every other weekend and we’ll be heading down to the Oireachtas in Philly over Thanksgiving,” said the Monroe, N.Y., resident. “So it becomes a real living expression of our Irish heritage.”
His wife Kathryn Anderson, a pharmacist and a fellow product of Ridgewood, went to the All Ireland competition in Killarney with their daughter in 2008.
“I went to Northern Ireland on a trip that was sponsored by the British Consulate in 2003. There was a group of about 25 of us from city government,” he said. The New Yorkers studied a new treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. “The affection and the willingness to help that we experienced is, I think, very characteristic of the Irish people,” he said.
The Emeralds’ vice-president, who is also an AOH member, is looking forward to a special new chapter in the NYPD’s Irish story early next year: Raymond W. Kelly will lead the St. Patrick’s Day Parade as grand marshal.
“We’re very proud of our commissioner,” Anderson said.