Starbucks set to meet with Tempe's Police chief
Starbuck corporate headquarters calls the treatment of Tempe Police officers 'unacceptable.'
Starbucks executives were reportedly meeting again with the Tempe Police Department on Monday after six officers were booted from one of the coffee giant's locations in Arizona when a customer told an employee the person "did not feel safe" in the cops' presence.
The executives met with the department on Sunday and continued working with authorities there Monday following the July 4 incident in the Phoenix suburb, CBS News reported.
TEMPE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION 'ENCOURAGED' BY STARBUCKS APOLOGY AFTER COPS ASKED TO LEAVE
According to the Tempe Officers Association, the police officers had just purchased their drinks and were standing together when a barista asked them "to move out of the customer's line of sight or to leave" after a customer complained about feeling unsafe.
The officers, "disappointed," left the Starbucks.
"This treatment of public safety workers could not be more disheartening," the association wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. "While the barista was polite, making such a request at all was offensive."
Sgt. Rob Ferraro, president of the association, told Fox News on Sunday that officials don't want a boycott of Starbucks — but said they were "encouraged that Starbucks has reached out to our organization and to the Tempe Police Department to apologize and to further express their support of law enforcement.”
“We hope that out of this unfortunate incident there comes a welcome dialogue, one that more closely unites the men and women on the frontlines of police work with the communities we serve and protect," he added.
STARBUCKS APOLOGIZES AFTER POLICE OFFICERS ASKED TO LEAVE SHOP BECAUSE OF CUSTOMER COMPLAINT
The coffee chain quickly apologized, saying Starbucks has "deep respect for the Tempe Police Department" and apologized "for any misunderstanding or inappropriate behavior that may have taken place."
On Saturday, the company's executive vice president personally apologized on behalf of the company.
“They should have been welcomed and treated with dignity and the utmost respect by our partners (employees). Instead, they were made to feel unwelcome and disrespected, which is completely unacceptable,” she wrote.
It was not immediately clear whether the barista — who has not been identified — would face disciplinary action.
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The coffee chain also made headlines last year after two black men waiting for a business associate were arrested inside a Philadelphia shop for trespassing. The men received an apology from the city’s police commissioner, and Starbucks closed 8,000 locations for the better part of a day to conduct “racial bias training.”
Fox News' Talia Kaplan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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