PA Cops In The News
PA Cops In The News
From: Jimmy Fay - Retired PATH
Friday, July 16 2010
Wall Street Journal
Port Authority Cuts Its Copters
By SEAN GARDINER
Port Authority officials on Thursday ordered its two-helicopter patrol permanently grounded, a move they say will save the agency millions of dollars a year.
Union representatives from the Port Authority Police Department worry the decision leaves vulnerable the bridges, tunnels and airports they're responsible for safeguarding.
"We're concerned," said a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, Robert Egbert.
He added: "The helicopters as far as a security and law-enforcement tool became an integral part of the patrol of the airports, bridges and tunnels, each of which has proven in the past to be a high-value target to our country's enemies."
Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said the agency's analysis determined that the helicopters are "not integral" to the work conducted by the PAPD and will have no impact on the security of its facilities.
"In a period of declining revenues for the agency due to the continuing economic downturn, we just didn't think it made sense to continue to expend upward of $4 million a year on these helicopters," Mr. Sigmund said.
A study by the Port Authority on the PAPD's helicopter unit, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, determined that the twice-daily helicopter patrols on average lasted between 90 minutes and 2 hours and typically were conducted between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Only one helicopter patrolled at a time and each flight required two civilian pilots, each of whom took in more than $160,000 last year, and a police officer.
The study looked at activity between August 2008 and the end of April 2009.
The helicopters made 258 flights, 228 of which, or 89%, were police patrols. There were no unusual incidents reported on those patrols.
A PAPD helicopter attempted to respond to the USAirways crash landing in the Hudson River but was called off by the NYPD, and the aviation unit four times was called upon to search for missing persons.
The remaining 25 flights were for things such as a Memorial Day flyover or taking photographs of various facilities, according to the study.
The study also found that no other "similar organizations" around the country have their own helicopters, including the airports in Chicago and Atlanta. Instead, the report states, those agencies rely on the aviation units of local police departments to respond if a helicopter is necessary.
The report also states that in addition to saving the agency close to the $3.6 million budgeted for the aviation unit annually, the Port Authority aims to recoup more than $8 million by selling the two Sikorsky helicopters.
Write to Sean Gardiner at sean.gardiner@wsj.com
The PA will "temporarily" move 300 staffers out of 1 Madison Avenue -- the landmarked "clock tower" at 23rd Street that was purchased by Lev Leviev's Africa-Israel Investments in 2007 -- when its lease expires in October, 2011. The PA has about 7,000 employees in the two states.
The move to New Jersey will save the PA $20-to-$30 per square foot. But a Manhattan broker, who didn't wish to be named for fear of ticking off the agency with whom the dealmaker does business, said, "There are plenty of older buildings in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn where the PA could get the same price it would get in Jersey. The symbolism of this stinks."
Although Africa-Israel supposedly plans to convert the building's 700 foot-tall tower portion into luxury condos, its 15-story "east wing," stretching from Madison Avenue to Park, remains filled with offices, including major tenant Credit Suisse.
The PA's headquarters are at 225-233 Park Avenue South. But it also has 147,000 square feet at 1 Madison Ave. for its Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals division and its purchasing services and information technology departments.
PA spokesman Stephen Sigmund said Africa-Israel had offered a lease renewal but "at a substantially higher cost," which he wouldn't specify. Brokerage sources indicated the rent would rise from $52 a square foot to $60.
In comparison, Sigmund said, the PA was looking at space in the "high $20s a square foot in Hudson and Essex counties.
Sigmund said, "We're not talking about moving people to New Jersey permanently." He said the workers would move back to Manhattan in 2013, when 4 World Trade Center, the Ground Zero tower being developed by Larry Silverstein to house the PA's new headquarters, is supposed to be completed.
"It's either stay here for two years more and pay exorbitant rents, or move people to cheaper space [in New Jersey] we could keep as secondary space once we move to 4 World Trade," Sigmund said.
Even so, some real estate executives said moving so many employees across the Hudson reflects the Jersey side's strong and growing upper hand at the PA.
Although preliminary work is underway on 4 WTC, the PA is duking it out with Silverstein over a financing agreement that must be approved by the states' governors before the full tower can be built.
New Jersey-appointed PA Chairman Tony Coscia didn't appear at the recent announcement when New York-appointed PA Executive Director Chris Ward described the tentative deal's framework.
Tight-fisted New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has yet to sign off on it, and in Albany, lame-duck Gov. Paterson is viewed as ineffectual and remote from WTC decision-making.
The city's Economic Development Corp. declined to comment on the PA's moving plans. Paterson's press office didn't get back to us by deadline
A procurement officer for PATH trains was supposed to be purchasing mundane items such as a new public-address system -- instead, he used the dough to buy himself big-screen TVs and remote-controlled toy racing cars and helicopters, sources said yesterday.
Darshanand Sitaram, a $75,000-a-year engineer assigned to the PATH Power Signaling and Communication Division, helped himself to the estimated $100,000 in Port Authority money through a sophisticated embezzlement scheme, the sources said.
He used his knowledge of the system to bypass the internal vetting procedures for about three years, submitting legitimate-looking invoices for items PATH might need, according to the sources.
But the Queens man, 30, was really using the doctored invoices to buy expensive goodies for himself, the sources said.
Robert Van Etten, the Port Authority Inspector General whose office busted Sitaram, said that the suspect abused his post and his employers' trust.
"This Port Authority employee, who had a good job, took advantage of his position and abused it in a very deliberate and systemic way, embezzling money by altering documents subsequent to his supervisor approving what appeared to be routine and needed items," said Port Authority Inspector General Robert Van Etten.
Sitaram's scam was able to cover up his tracks by arranging to have a superior approve a phony invoice and then changing those invoices with the items he wanted.
Once the items he wanted were shipped and delivered to either his home or the home of his parents in Richmond Hill, Queens, he took the additional step of entering into the PATH computer system, where he listed the phony items as having been shipped to the agency, thereby establishing what should have been the proper inventory for the items in question, a source added.
The scheme unraveled in June 2009 when officials compared invoices and found a discrepancy between what had been ordered and BMW car parts that were shipped to his parents, according to a criminal complaint that was filed in the case.
"It was a very sophisticated scheme," explained Michael Nestor, the Port Authority's Deputy Inspector General, who is in charge of investigations.
Sitaram was released on $100,000 bond in Brooklyn federal court yesterday and had no comment.
Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law is an effort to "crack down" on illegal immigration and the harm it causes Arizona, including crime and back-breaking public expenses to incarcerate, educate, medically treat and provide other services to illegal immigrants and their children.
Arizona has been forced to assume responsibility for immigration enforcement because of the federal government's refusal to secure the border and conduct adequate internal enforcement.
Some fear that the law will empower police to challenge the legal presence of all Hispanics, legal and illegal, based solely upon their appearance, but that's not correct. Police officers may only question the immigration status of a person when they have "reasonable suspicion" to believe that the person is in the U.S. illegally. This provision merely extends to immigration offenses a half-century-old tool called "stop and question," created by the U.S. Supreme Court. To prevent racial profiling, the law states that in constructing "reasonable suspicion," police officers "may not solely consider race, color or national origin."
Another misconception is that the law requires residents to carry identification papers. Not true. This mistaken belief stems from a provision that creates a presumption of legal presence, if a person voluntarily presents specified forms of government-issued identification. Failing to present identification papers is not grounds for arrest.
Nor will the law divert police resources from more pressing matters. Police officers are only required to make "reasonable" legal presence inquiries "when practicable," so that officers will be free to prioritize their time. Likewise, no questioning is required when it would "hinder or obstruct an investigation," so that the police do not have to question all crime victims and witnesses about their immigration status.
The sad fact is that the Bush administration dropped the ball on immigration enforcement and that the Obama administration cannot even find it. The primary responsibility of government is to protect its citizens, and illegal immigration poses a growing threat to safety. Until such time as the federal government secures the border and adequately enforces immigration laws internally, Arizona and other states will have no choice but to protect their citizens.
John Kavanagh, a Republican, is a member of the Arizona House of Representatives and a sponsor of the new law