Members of Starbucks’ leadership team met Monday with six police officers who were asked to leave the coffee giant’s Tempe, Arizona, store last week, which prompted the company to apologize to the officers involved.
The meeting and subsequent apology followed a July 4 incident in which a barista told the police officers they needed to either move out of a customer’s line of sight or leave the restaurant because the person felt unsafe due to their presence. The officers decided to leave.
The encounter prompted backlash against the coffee chain, as calls for a boycott of Starbucks gained traction on social media. The Tempe Officers Association said in a statement the request from the barista was “offensive” and called the treatment of the officers “disheartening.”
On Sunday, Rossann Williams, executive vice president at Starbucks, published an open letter to Tempe Police Chief Sylvia Moir and the police department apologizing for the incident.
“When those officers entered the store and a customer raised a concern over their presence, they should have been welcomed and treated with dignity and the utmost respect by our partners (employees),” Williams said. “Instead, they were made to feel unwelcome and disrespected, which is completely unacceptable.”
The company, she said, is taking steps to ensure similar incidents don’t occur again.
Monday’s meeting between the police officers and Starbucks’ top brass was well received, Rob Ferraro, president of the Tempe Officers Association, said. The officers left the meeting “feeling heard and respected,” he said.
The Tempe Police Department said in the wake of the encounter, Moir, the Tempe Officers Association, members of the department and Starbucks executives “have engaged in meaningful and positive dialogue.”
“We had a profound few days with the @Starbucks team & we are doubling down on our commitment to join together in service of all people!” Moir tweeted.
We had a profound few days with the @Starbucks team & we are doubling down on our commitment to join together in service of all people! pic.twitter.com/EYrCLbTpzq
— Sylvia Moir (@ChiefMoir) July 8, 2019
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson also thanked Tempe police for “the ongoing constructive dialogue with our leaders” and said the company would “continue to learn from this moment.”
Thank you @ChiefMoir, @TempePolice and @ToaAz for the ongoing constructive dialogue with our leaders. We are grateful for your service and will continue to learn from this moment. https://t.co/27AmBRLJ7y
— Kevin Johnson (@Kevin_Johnson) July 9, 2019
The incident in Tempe is the latest in which Starbucks has come under scrutiny for its treatment of customers.
Starbucks faced an onslaught of criticism last year after two black men waiting for a friend were arrested at a store in Philadelphia after they were asked by an employee to leave. The company apologized and closed more than 8,000 stores in the United States for a day to conduct racial bias training for its employees.
