Watch to find our more about this incident in the video below.
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The job of a police officer is never easy. Aside from the low pay, every time they go out on patrol they risk their lives in order to keep the community safe. Sure, the chances of getting into a gunfight are pretty low unless one is posted in any of the high-crime cities but still, one never really knows and that’s enough to make the job stressful.
As if that wasn’t enough, police officers are always under a lot of scrutinies both from higher up and the public as well. Just like any position of power, there are those who are corrupt and abuse their authority. But there are also countless others who genuinely joined the police force to “protect and serve.”
Unfortunately, any time there’s bad publicity, everyone in the organization gets affected and the media hasn’t exactly painted a glowing picture of the police. The consequences of such negative exposure were felt on the Fourth of July of all days at a Starbucks coffee shop in Tempe.
A tweet from the Tempe Officers Association stated that six Tempe Police Department officers were enjoying some coffee before the start of their shift when a barista suddenly approached and told them one of the customers “did not feel safe” by the presence of the officers.
The organization continued, “This treatment of public safety workers could not be more disheartening. While the barista was polite, making such a request at all was offensive. Unfortunately, such treatment has become all too common in 2019. We know this is not a national policy at Starbucks Corporate and we look forward to working collaboratively with them on this important dialogue.”
Starbucks spokesperson Reggie Borges said the company is still investigating the incident.
“We have a deep respect for the Tempe Police and their service to the community,” he said. “We’ve reached out to the Tempe Police Department and Tempe Officers Association to better understand what happened and apologize. We want everyone in our stores to feel welcomed and the incident described is not indicative of what we want any of our customers to feel in our stores.”
However, he didn’t say if any disciplinary actions were being made.
The Tempe Police Department said in a tweeted statement that hopefully, what happened was an isolated incident rather than a reflection on Starbucks in general.
“Starbucks states they are aware of this incident and advised this interaction is not in line with Starbucks’ values and will continue to work in strengthening their relationship with law enforcement,” the police statement said.