b'What was it like to work with the New York City Police Department?It depended upon the captain in the location where you were. The great part about it was the union was excellent.Arthur "Sonny" Illery was our representative. He was the kind of person that would get all of the information he could and would bring us up to date on what was going on. We had a meeting in the Borough once a month. At that point we became Level One, Level Two and Level Three. As a supervisor, you were Level Three. Level Three was equal to a sergeant,but you were no longer called a sergeant. The Level Threes would have the meeting at the Manhattan Borough Officeonce a month, or whenever needed, or whenever there was an issue. Illery would come and talk to us and give us up todate information. As a Level Three, we saw our union rep once a month. There would be meetings here at the union hallas well.Were you ever shop steward yourself or a grievance representative or chapter chair for union members?No, I really wanted to become one and be involved because I was involved before in DC 37. Once we went to the police department, I went back to college, and so I did not have time to get involved with the union as a staff person oranything. And also, it was kind of political in a way.I don\'t want to get into that. I was in college and, under the police department, we were given six credits to go to if we went to John Jay. I graduated from junior college and went to John Jay, I got my Bachelor\'s from John Jay.What did you get your degree in?Political science. I also took about four classes for two terms in forensic science and mediation. I was particularly interested in mediation.I would think so, after your experience on the mobile task force. That\'s an important skill.I particularly liked mediation because you always try to find a solution working with students and parents which I had an opportunity to do while I was in the community job. There was a mediation class that was six weeks that I wentto. It changed my whole concept of how you work with people, and so I was interested in mediation as a method. I\'ve always felt that you shouldn\'t just sit and talk about an issue. There has to be a solution. And mediation to me was amethod of coming to some agreement particularly with students. Working in school safety and working as the supervisorin the school, you had a lot of problems sometimes with parents and students. Luckily for me, having some backgroundin mediation was helpful. It was also helpful if there was a suspension. Your staff could be involved in the write up forthose children that might involve a criminal act.I felt that one should be responsible, but I didnt want a child to have arecord against him. So, I tried to work as hard as I could to find a way of resolving the issue without the person goingthrough a whole arrest process, unless it was a weapon, or someone was injured, or something like that. But, it was veryhard sometimes working with teachers and with principals, and with the guidance counselors and the dean, because theywanted one thing and I was looking toward another thing.Did you feel the schools were too strict with the students?You had Board of Ed rules and regulations and a list of procedures for student behavior they had to go by. You had toreport certain issues. Sometimes, it just wasn\'t up to the school. When it was possible, you try to negotiate and give a kid154 '