Starbucks Apologizes After Arizona Store Asks Police to Leave

(Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp. issued an apology to Tempe, Arizona Police Chief Sylvia Moir and her department after six officers were asked to leave a store in the city following a request by a customer on July 4.

The barista approached the officers as a customer didn’t feel safe in their presence, the Tempe Officers Association said in a series of tweets. They chose to depart the store after they were asked to leave or move out of that customer’s line of sight.

“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 employees, Starbucks said in a statement. “Instead, they were made to feel unwelcome and disrespected, which is completely unacceptable.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Linus Chua in Los Angeles at lchua@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Linus Chua at lchua@bloomberg.net, Virginia Van Natta

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