Since its inception, John Jay College has been an institution proud to educate public safety leaders in law enforcement, fire suppression, and emergency medical services. Every day, these brave members of our community work hard to keep us safe. We’re continually grateful for their service, and in recognition of their considerable contributions to our safety, we’re dedicating our “Behind the Badge” series to them. In these articles we get to see the man or woman “behind the badge.” We get to know what inspires them, understand what challenges them, and most importantly learn about their jobs through their own thoughts and experiences.

Alumnus Alden Foster ’12, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration, couldn’t be better positioned to give his students a unique perspective on what it means to serve in the New York Police Department (NYPD). As Director of Youth Services and Community Engagement at the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau, he works with community leaders to create programs and provide resources for New York City’s youth. “In the beginning of my career, I only envisioned myself becoming a police officer, but my plans of going through the uniform ranks changed when I ended up on the civilian path,” says Foster, whose career includes working as a Policy Advisor under former Police Commissioner William Bratton. “When I talk to my students, and they learn that there are civilian positions in the NYPD, they are shocked. They don’t realize all that the NYPD offers. We have an aviation unit, a harbor team, and a photography unit. We have lawyers, doctors, medical personnel, mechanics, and people who specialize in different trades. With my students at John Jay, I try to show them the big picture. I tell them, ‘It’s not just about fighting crime. There’s so much more that goes into public safety.’”

Wanting to make students aware of the many career opportunities in the NYPD, Foster and fellow John Jay Adjunct Professor John Benoit invited 18 former John Jay students, who they mentored, to visit One Police Plaza with the intent of helping them further their careers. “John Benoit was my mentor when I was a student at John Jay in the early 2000s, and he helped me with my career in the police department. Now, he’s a Deputy Chief in the police department in charge of hiring,” says Foster. “A lot of my students grew up in low-income households, single-parent homes, or are working to pay for their tuition. John and I have created a pipeline to help these young people learn about all of the career opportunities available to them. We are going to be talking to them and seeing where they are in their career, where they want to go, and how we can help get them there.” Foster sat down with us to share his journey into the NYPD and how his work as a civilian executive impacts the community at large.

Can you explain what it means to be a civilian executive in the NYPD?
In the NYPD, whether it’s 911 operators, school safety agents, or traffic agents, civilians are a big part of keeping people safe. You don’t really hear about it often. When students think of policing, they only think about the uniform but there are so many other areas. As the director of Youth Services and Community Engagement, I work on setting up and implementing policy changes. I have police officers that work for me. I come up with the big picture ideas and figure out how to get those police officers on the streets to go out and engage the community. One of my biggest jobs here is to secure resources. We ask police officers in this country, especially in cities, to do a lot. We ask them to engage with people who are often in crisis. My job is to find government resources available for young people so that when we ask our officers on patrol to go out there, they have information to pass along to these folks in the community.

Who or what inspired you to embark on a career in law enforcement?
My mother was a civilian employee in the NYPD when I was young. I think being around her and coming to work with her at a young age really sparked my interest. But I always tell my students that I could have gone either way. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York in public housing during the late ’80s and early ’90s. Crack usage was very high and the city’s crime rate was through the roof. I had family members that were involved with crime and the street life. Eventually, my family moved out of Brooklyn and into the Bronx because my mother wanted me to see a different path in life.

I started working in the police department as an unpaid intern in high school. During the summertime, I got into the paid summer internship program. It was the best job because I got to network and meet NYPD executives. A lot of people who currently serve as chiefs and city commissioners today in the police department, I knew as a kid. The police department is huge. We have over 30,000 members, with over 16,000 working civilians. There are 77 precincts, nine public services. We have 12 transit districts and hundreds of units here. That internship experience really helped prepare me for my current role in being able to navigate the police department.

What was your journey like coming to John Jay while moving up the ranks in the NYPD?
My life started to change when I enrolled at John Jay in 2005. I was a student at the College when I got an offer from one of my colleagues in the police department to go to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office. My parents were not rich and they couldn’t help me financially, so I had to take on a full-time job to pay for tuition and books. I was doing a lot of narcotics paperwork, computer forensic investigative work, and going through cell phone data to help the district attorneys prosecute drug cases. Doing that work was important to me because I grew up seeing how narcotics can ruin a community. I did that for about two and a half years, and then I got an offer to work for the United States Secret Service, where I learned about counterfeit money and fraud investigations. I did that for some time while I was still at John Jay. Finally, in 2012, I graduated from John Jay with an associate degree in Police Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and began working in Brooklyn at the District Attorney’s office, where I was doing investigations on human trafficking and wiretap investigations.

When Bill Bratton became NYPD Police Commissioner, he asked me to be his policy advisor—I knew Bill Bratton from the early ’90s, because of my mother’s job in the police department and had kept in contact with him as I got older. He wanted me to start looking at youth-related issues in the city. Before that day, I had never thought about having a career working directly with young people.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
The most challenging aspect is when a young person is in a situation where you can’t help them. In this job, I see the worst. Not too long ago, an 11-year-old child was shot. Those situations keep me up at night. I think of what more we could have done as a department to help that young person sooner. But even when I am having a bad day, I try to remember that I can literally come into work and make one phone call that can change someone’s life. I met a woman who came into the precinct and said that she was going to get evicted from her house. We were able to get her into a shelter and put her in contact with resources that kept her and her family with a roof over their head. My whole job is about helping people, so even on my worst days, I am helping someone that really needs it.

How has your education at John Jay College impacted you in your career as a civilian executive?
There’s a lot of things that saved my life, and John Jay is at the top of that list. One thing I loved about my time as a student at the College was that a lot of executives in law enforcement came to do lectures. A lot of my professors were practitioners working in the field, so I had professors who were lieutenants, cops, and sergeants. I took a class for stress management in law enforcement one semester, and it was probably the best class I ever took. It opened my eyes to policing and realizing that there’s so much prevention work that can be done.

In police work you are dealing with people who are under a lot of stress. When I am at work, I am often speaking to people who are in difficult situations. They might be losing their homes or having domestic violence issues in the home. People don’t usually think of these incidents as a police issue, but they are because they have the potential of becoming a situation where the police have to get involved. That stress management course taught me how to communicate with people who are under great amounts of stress.

What advice would you give to future law enforcement officers?
What I tell all my students is that this is not just a job, this is a calling. You really have to care about people and want to help people. That often means that you have to take yourself out of the equation and really take a look at the actual issues that you’re dealing with. Police work is very stressful and time-consuming. This is not a job where you just clock in, collect a paycheck, and go home. You’re in it. You’re who people count on in snowstorms, in blackouts, and in moments of crisis. You’re here to provide a service for people on your good days and bad days. One of the things I try to do in my classes is to give students the entire picture of law enforcement. Sometimes they come in thinking that as a police officer you just respond to calls and make arrests, but it’s very important to have empathy. You have to be able to talk to people.

John Jay has helped so many young people become public servants and it’s really an amazing College. I tell people that I have the best of both worlds, because I get to help young people in New York City, and then go up to John Jay and help students achieve their dreams.