Upscale fast food restaurant Noodles & Company is receiving criticism after several police officers said they were denied service at the chain’s Alexandria, Virginia, outlet.
According to reports, a female officer said that as she stood in line to order her lunch, a Noodles & Company cook walked up to a cashier and said something similar to, “You are going to have to take me off the line, because I am not serving that.”
The officer immediately reported the incident to her supervisor, according to WPXI.com.
Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook told reporters the incident made him and all officers angry.
“Well, your first response as a police officer is anger,” the chief said, adding:
These are very difficult times right now with our relations with everyone, and to have one of my officers treated in that manner unnecessarily, your first response is anger; then you calm down a bit as usual, let’s find out what happened, and as we have talked to our officer and talking to the store management, it seems to have happened as my officer stated.
The restaurant did not issue an immediate apology, saying only that it was investigating the incident.
The company said in a statement:
Noodles & Company expects the highest ethical and personal behavior from its team members. We value each of our guests and are committed to treating every one with dignity and respect. We do not tolerate any form of discrimination. We are working with the appropriate authorities and local police association representatives to get to the bottom of, and resolve this matter as quickly as possible. We have made efforts to reach out to the police officer involved, but have not yet spoken with her. We will continue to look into the situation and will take the appropriate actions at the conclusion of this review.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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