Official: Camden Cop Layoffs Won't Change DRPA's Police Plans
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) - The latest concern to be voiced by a commissioner at the Delaware River Port Authority is whether DRPA cops might be used to patrol some of Camden's streets if half the city's police force is laid off, as threatened in two weeks. Authority officials insist their officers will patrol their properties and nothing else.
Commissioner John Dougherty has long railed against the DRPA addressing issues apart from their prime mission, and certainly having their cops patrolling Camden would fall into that category.
"And the fact that they acknowledge that there's been at least two on the records meetings, I would imagine, history says there's a series of in-house meetings going on also," Dougherty said.
Not according to management. CEO John Matheussen says those meetings were with a dozen agencies with interests in Camden. Once the layoffs hit, DRPA cops will keep a closer eye on their properties, including three Camden PATCO stations. But there has not, is not, and will not be any assignments away from those facilities, except for backing up Camden police when they get the call.
Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio
