Crowds Visiting ‘The Gates’ Get Polyglot Police
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When the artist Christo and his collaborator, Jeanne-Claude, unveil their installation “The Gates” at Central Park, the New York Police Department will showcase a few new projects of its own.
Beginning tomorrow, several hundred extra police officers will patrol the park, both on the ground and in the air, to combat vandalism and keep order among the hundreds of thousands of expected visitors, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday. For the first time, many officers will offer to communicate with many foreign tourists in the visitors’ native languages, Mr. Kelly said.
“We anticipate a significant interest in this exhibit in Europe and Japan, and it is the first time in my memory that we have made these services available,” Mr. Kelly said, speaking of the foreign-language communications.
Wearing small badges that read “Ich spreche Deutsch,” or “Je parle francais,” officers who have been newly trained and certified in language proficiency will be dispatched to Central Park to help tourists navigate the city.
The polyglot team comes from a post-September 11 initiative to promote critical language skills among the city’s police officers. Most of the officers involved were native speakers who have been recruited from within the police force to work in the Police Department’s counterterrorism initiative, Mr. Kelly said. The department now employs officers certified in Pashtun, Hindi, and Urdu, among other languages, the commissioner said.
But in the next week, the officers will get a respite from their counterterrorism duties to police the artwork taking over Central Park. The temporary installation includes 7,500 wooden gates, each of them 16 feet high, spaced out over 23 miles of pedestrian walkways in the park. Many of the gates have been standing for weeks, but the flowing, saffron colored vinyl panels that will be suspended seven feet above the ground will be unfurled tomorrow morning. The exhibition will remain standing for 15 days before being dismantled and recycled.
According to Mr. Kelly, the Police Department will also deploy helicopters equipped to send live video images of the park directly to one of seven mobile command posts that will be set up nearby, allowing commanders to send officers exactly where they are needed.
The artists will reimburse the city for any costs for overtime or other extra security, Mr. Kelly said.
