NYPD BLUE ANGELS

Good-deed app to help boost cop promotions

It used to be that when cops helped old ladies cross the street or fixed somebody’s flat, it was out of the goodness of their hearts.

But now, thanks to a new app on NYPD-issued smartphones, officers can log their good deeds and get credit toward promotions and transfers, officials said Thursday.

Yes, brownie points: There’s an app for that.

“We’re trying to measure things we didn’t measure in the past; nontraditional indicators that didn’t show up” in the old system of cop evaluations, Kevin Ward, chief of management and planning for the NYPD, said during a press briefing at One Police Plaza.

The new app will let cops log not only their arrests and summonses, but their on-the-job kindly acts, as when transit Officer Frank Rendina bought $18 compression socks for a needy homeless man, Ron Brown, at Grand Central station last week.

Supervisors will still need to verify the good deeds, along with arrest numbers, during each cop’s monthly evaluation, officials said.

The app will enable “a more holistic view of each officer,” Ward said, adding that previously, “It was purely by the numbers.”

“This will push the message to the officers that it’s not about the numbers,” Ward went on.

“It’s about the quality of these other things that are difficult to measure day to day.”

The new app has plenty of skeptics.

“Police officers don’t pat ourselves on the back,” said one police source.

“We love providing service to the community, but we don’t expect to be patted on the back for everything we do.”

Another called it “a silly gimmick.”

“There’s already a mechanism in place to pat yourself on the back — it’s called an aided card,” another police source complained, referring to the cards cops can fill out to detail officers’ interactions with people who aren’t necessarily arrested or ticketed.

“Most cops do not know they should or could fill out an aided card,” the source continued.

“By coming out with this app, [brass] are letting us know that they care about us . . . It’s just one of these feel-good things.”

BENEVOLENT PATROLMEN: Cops like Officer Frank Rendina (left, with colleague Justin Guzman) who bought homeless Ronald Brown socks, can now earn points for their kind acts.