Training Center for Court Staff;

Based in Crown Heights
Training Center for Court Staff


The Spitzer administration has earmarked $33 million to renovate three long-abandoned church buildings in Crown Heights to create a new Court Officer training center, which will include a 40-room dormitory, a new command center, and a 600-seat auditorium.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow A COURT ACADEMY GROWS IN BROOKLYN: The Office of Court Administration is negotiating a 30-year lease for three vacant church buildings in Crown Heights to house its new Court Officer training facility and command center. Pictured from left are: Cate Agnew, director of real estate for the Diocese of Brooklyn; Ted Kantor, vice president of the Court Officers' Association; and Rev. Thomas Ahern. The facility, which engineers are currently busy designing, is scheduled to be completed in two years. The present academy has long been considered ill-equipped to handle the 350-to-400 new recruits each year, as it is located in a lower Manhattan commercial building that houses business offices. The building's owner recently asked the state to move out.

Quirk a Prime Mover

The plan for the new Brooklyn training center was conceived last February when Court Officers' Association President Dennis W. Quirk met with state lawmakers and clergymen in Albany. Mr. Quirk and the local Catholic Diocese officials were upstate to lobby the former Pataki administration to back a tuition tax credit proposal.

But during a dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Mr. Quirk mentioned to Brooklyn State Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez that the Office of Court Administration was looking for a new place to move its training center.

"Some discussion came up of vacant property," Mr. Quirk recalled April 25. "The Bishop gave us a list of schools."

Mr. Quirk and the union's vice president, Ted Kantor, then visited several sites, but St. Teresa of Avila's Convent and its adjacent run-down school building and dilapidated auditorium stuck out. "At first sight we fell in love with it," Mr. Quirk recalled. "It needs to be totally gutted, but we can make that work."

The buildings are also next to a Jesuit elementary school, which Mr. Quirk hopes will play an integral role in his plan to help officers better understand minority communities.

'We'll Adopt the School'

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow THE PERFECT SPOT: Court Officers' Association President Dennis Quirk checked several sites before recommending three abandoned church buildings in Crown Heights, Brooklyn for the new Court Officer training facility. Governor Spitzer has allocated $33.7 million for the renovation project, which is slated to take two years to complete. "We want to adopt the school," he said. "It may become a model for diversity training. We believe it will give people a different perspective on diversity training."

The partnership will also help the predominately African-American children view law-enforcement officers in a different light, Mr. Quirk said. "It's good for them to know that law-enforcement people are not their enemies," he remarked.

Governor Spitzer has also allocated $24 million for a new Court Officer training academy for upstate officers in Saratoga. Sources indicated that was done at the behest of State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, who represents that region. The exact location for that facility hasn't been determined.

'Anchor for Community'

The Brooklyn buildings - which border Sterling Place and the corner of Classon Ave. - are two blocks away from the Eastern Parkway IRT subway station and are directly in front of the B45 bus stop. The area is also minutes away from Prospect Park, where new recruits can train outdoors, Mr. Quirk pointed out.

With the planned renovation of the buildings, the area's real-estate value will improve and officers living there will provide added security for the neighborhood, supporters of the plan noted. "I think it's going to be the anchor point for the community," said Rev. Thomas Ahern, who is the pastor of the St. Teresa of Avila Parish located across the street.

As for parking, Mr. Quirk said the recruits will be asked to use public transportation to get to classes, in order to avoid clogging an already-busy area. Sources indicated that the renovation plans may also include space for a small parking lot.

The recruits assigned to the dorm will be officers from surrounding counties, which are difficult to travel to each day, Mr. Quirk said.

Benefit for Diocese

The new facility will also be used to house OCA's Command Center, which monitors court facilities 24/7. The center and the state's Mobile Patrol Unit were established after 9/11 to boost security around the courts.

The state is currently working to negotiate a 30-year lease agreement with the Brooklyn-Queens Diocese for the buildings. Funds from the agreement will be used to help renovate the St. Teresa of Avila Church, which has services in Spanish, Creole, and English.

Diocese officials noted that there was a moratorium placed on selling church properties three years ago by the Vatican. The deal allows the Diocese to operate around that rule, while helping the nearby community. "It's our alternative to selling," one church official said. "We got tons of offers from developers looking to turn them into luxury apartments. But this is going to be part of the community. It's going to be a real benefit."

Inside, the church buildings are completely dilapidated, with wallpaper peeling, bits of paint falling from the roof and covering the floor, and dust and rust everywhere.

A Job Transformed

But the convent, which was built in 1901, also has a magnificent wooden staircase, intricately designed doors and windows, and a roughly 20-foot ceiling in the entrance. "It's a shame this is all going to have to come out," said Mr. Kantor as he led a tour through the building.

The old convent is also a glimpse into a prior time, with small rooms that have no closets and only a few shared bathrooms. "They only had two habits," Reverend Ahern noted. "They lived in cells; life changed but the building didn't."

The Court Officer job has also dramatically changed since 9/11, when 22 officers and supervisory staff ran to the Twin Towers from their posts in lower Manhattan and the nearby training academy to help evacuate the buildings.

Capt. William "Harry" Thompson and Court Officers Thomas Jurgens and Mitchell Wallace died when the towers collapsed. In the six years since, one consequence for their surviving colleagues has been beefed-up security procedures and training.

Expanded Training

The state's court system now communicates regularly with various other law-enforcement agencies and continues to add new instruction programs for current staff, said Chief Joseph Baccellieri, who heads the training academy.

Court Officers are now assigned to the city's Office of Emergency Management and the Police Department's counter-terrorism task force, he noted. Officer training presently also involves counter-terrorism, crowd control tactics, and gang intelligence instruction.

Mr. Baccellieri has pointed out that when he joined OCA in 1983, the training lasted 10 days. "The first day was administrative, the last day was a party; one day you went to Rikers Island, and seven days you had some spattering of training," he recalled.

In contrast, the new officers now receive an initial 10 weeks of instruction, plus additional training throughout their first two years on the job. OCA is also considering extending the initial course to 12 weeks.

Assemblyman Lopez noted that some OCA officials and legislators wanted the entire training facility to be moved upstate. "There was a big battle on where this training program was going to be," he said during a phone interview last week. "We fought hard to get it into Brooklyn. It's going to help revitalize a community in Brooklyn, it's going to help the diocese in Brooklyn, and it will add to the security of that neighborhood."

By all accounts, Mr. Quirk played an integral role in working out the deal with the state and the Brooklyn Diocese. "Dennis Quirk did a tremendous job of lifting this project," stressed State Sen. Martin J. Golden, who also worked on arranging the plan.

As for the new location, one diocese official asserted it was the perfect selection. "It was kind of like Goldilocks and the Three Bears," said Cate Agnew, director of real estate for the Diocese of Brooklyn. "This one was too hot, this one was too cold, but this one was just perfect."