Santa Monica’s finest may be a bit flighty.
That’s because one of the Santa Monica Police Department’s trained resources is a bird. Not just any bird — a yellow Amazon parrot, who has an extensive vocabulary built into her repertoire that is used to teach school children safety tips.
Nacho recently showed off her skills in front of Beverly Hills police officers who are considering enlisting a bird of their own.
The 18-year-old parrot travels to 77 public and private schools throughout the area with SMPD officer Joe Analco, teaching students basic rules. Using a bird to capture the attention of children has worked for decades in the department, Analco said. Nacho performs her shtick about 500 times a year.
“She’s the key and really the one that the kids relate to,” Analco said.
Nacho and Analco spend about 30 minutes with students performing their bird-brained act that includes tips about wearing helmets, how to cross a street safely and what do when there’s fire — “stop, drop and roll,” which the Nacho does on command. Nacho also can ride a bicycle, a scooter and can hold a conversation with Analco.
Nacho responds to the sound, level and tone of Analco’s voice. She can purr like a kitten, whistle, sing, cry like a baby and make kissing sounds when asked.
“She picks up on voice inflections,” Analco said.
When he asks her a question, Nacho responds accordingly. Only one time did she respond inappropriately, which Analco quickly smoothed over so elementary students didn’t notice that she swore. It took him nearly six months to deprogram the word out of Nacho’s vocabulary.
“You have to play off of it,” Analco said. “One thing I’ve learned with her is improv. Nobody knows your shtick so sometimes you make it up as you go.”
It takes about eight months for Nacho to master a new trick. Analco has been with her since she was a rookie in the department, which has been most of her life.
She was bought by an officer, who has since retired, for the purpose of teaching public service lessons to school children. The retired officer at the time used magic to capture students’ attention and thought a bird might be a valuable tool.
“Birds have a personality and kids love her,” Analco said. “And Nacho is the only employee in the police department that works for peanuts.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 8, 2002. Read the original PDF.