Auxiliary Police Officer Fiorindo Gonella Jr.

Fiorindo Gonella Jr. is a 52-year-old early retiree, a former deli owner who has lived his whole life in the Fifth Precinct. Growing up where Little Italy meets Chinatown, his father's deli had as many Chinese as it did Italian customers, and so he learned early on how to speak both Cantonese and Fujianese, the two most common forms of Chinese spoken in the Fifth Precinct. He inherited the old man's deli when Fiorindo Senior and his mom Filomena retired to Florida. When a big-name chain bought him out, he retired early, but found life not all that exciting without a job, so he volunteers his time in the Fifth Precinct as an unpaid Auxiliary Police Officer.

A short Italian guy, he goes by the name "Frank" because so few people south of Canal Street can pronounce his Italian name of "Fiorindo"; north of Canal--in Little Italy--everyone can pronounce his name, but half of them call him "Ju-Ju" (for "Junior"). In Chinatown, his normal beat, he tends tends to shock people who do not expect this typical Italian-American cop to speak rather fluent Chinese.

No matter what their day job is -- doctor, banker, fashion designer or postman -- Auxiliary Police officers have a common goal when on duty: to detect crime and report it to regular police officers. They increase the public's perception of police "omnipresence" by patrolling in police cars, on foot and on bicycle. Auxiliary Police officers are not permitted to carry a side arm at any time on duty, even if independently licensed to carry a firearm. As a result, they wear bulletproof vests and carry traditional nightsticks for defensive purposes.

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