TROOPERS BEING TRAINED TO DISPATCH; THEY’D REPLACE LAID-OFF CIVILIANS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

The state police on Thursday began training 29 officers in dispatching in the wake of notices sent to 123 of the agency’s 127 civilian dispatchers that they would be laid off next month.
The two-day instruction of senior troopers and sergeants at Fort Dix ensures that the agency will have trained people operating its criminal-justice information system should the layoffs go through, said Capt. Thomas Gallagher, a state police spokesman.
The dispatchers union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state’s Public Employment Relations Commission, and has asked the state Department of Personnel for an affirmative-action review because the dispatchers are predominantly women and minorities, the union’s president said.
Dominick Critelli, who heads the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents the dispatchers, also questioned the wisdom of laying off dispatchers who earn between $18,000 and $25,000 a year and replacing them with officers who earn about $45,000.
Public safety would suffer because fewer troopers would be enforcing the law; at the same time, the state won’t see the expected $3.3 million savings from the layoffs, Critelli said.
“I can’t see cutting services in the area that they are cutting because there is nothing gained economically,” he said. “What you are talking about is a loss in services for basically the same dollar amounts if these people lost their jobs and go on to collect unemployment and receive some type of social assistance.”
Gallagher said public safety would not suffer because the people being trained to do the job work in the offices. They would just have to assume the additional responsibility of operating the dispatching system, he said.
The $3.3 million savings expected from laying off the dispatchers should bring to $7.2 million the amount saved by state police labor cuts this fiscal year and in next year’s budget.
Earlier this year, the state police cut $1.1 million from this year’s budget by laying off 32 inspectors from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau, Gallagher said.
The savings from the dispatcher layoffs, plus $2.8 million expected from the laying off of 160 security guards in state buildings, would be applied to next year’s budget, he added.
Civilians have been working as dispatchers since the state created the position in 1970 as a way to put more troopers on the road.

Keywords: POLICE; NEW JERSEY; INFORMATION; EMPLOYMENT

COPS READY TO BUCKLE DOWN ON ANYONE NOT BUCKLING UP

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star Four Star B Two Star | NEWS | Page B04

Operation Domino, the six-month driver-education program that sponsors said helped reduce automobile accidents in Bergen County by about 1,300 last year, worked so well it is getting a second chance this year beginning today.
“Buckle Up and Drive Defensively” will be the theme of Operation Domino Revisited, said John Pescatore, director of the Bergen County Office of Highway Safety.
Bergen County’s 70 police departments will concentrate on enforcing the state seat-belt law, he said. “Every death [on the county’s roadways] is a defeat,” Pescatore said. “When you go to an accident and you see that 17-year-old thrown from the car because he was not wearing a seat belt, when you go to an accident and you see a child thrown through with windshield because she was not in a child-restraint seat, they bring your defeats right before you.”
Last year’s effort a pilot program to see if enforcement, coupled with community awareness and cooperation, would effectively reduce the number of accidents in the county focused on a specific violation each month.
Some of the violations focused on were speeding, tailgating, not coming to a full stop at a stop sign, and failure to signal when changing lanes.
The program was so successful that the county was able to see a 10 percent compliance jump from 45 percent to 55 percent, 5 percent above the state average with the seat belt law, Pescatore said.
Motorists should be more careful this year, Pescatore said, because the slow economy has added more cars to state highways during a season of already high travel. More families than in years past will be planning shorter but more frequent trips to state’s shores and resort areas, he said.
As a result, Bergen County will work with Atlantic County on another pilot program Operation Leapfrog, a series of public service announcements asking residents of the two counties to buckle up, watch their speed, obey the rules of the road, and not drink and drive.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; POLICE; MOTOR VEHICLE; SAFETY; EQUIPMENT; VIOLATION

OFFICER COMMITS SUICIDE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, May 17, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star Two Star | NEWS | Page B03

The body of a 25-year-old township police officer who was distraught over the dissolution of his marriage was discovered at his Grand Avenue apartment on Wednesday, police said.
Albert C. Cabrera who was named the township’s outstanding police officer of the year in 1988, his first year on the job was found by a fellow officer who had volunteered to look in on him when he did not show up for his shift Wednesday, Lt. Timothy Kelly said.
Officer Robert Conlon found Cabrera in the bedroom formerly used by his 10-month-old daughter. Cabrera had a gunshot wound to the head and a gun in his hand. Investigators placed the time of death at about 10 p.m. Monday, Kelly said.
“Our investigation concluded that it was definitely a self-inflicted wound,” Kelly said.
Cabrera was depressed about his separation from his wife and daughter, Kelly said. The wife obtained a restraining order from a Jersey City Family Court judge on April 19 to keep him away from her and the child. She had been living with her mother in Jersey City since the separation, Kelly said.
He said he did not know why Cabrera’s wife had sought the restraining order.
The depression did not show in Cabrera’s work, Kelly said.
“The department is in complete shock,” Kelly said. “He was a very personable young man. He was an excellent police officer, a very conscientious patrolman.”

Keywords: NORTH BERGEN; POLICE; SUICIDE

FASTER FINGERPRINTS FOILING FELONS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, May 11, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS Page A01

Christopher Villone was in a Bergen County Jail cell on burglary charges one day in late March when investigators walked in and told him he was being charged with four more counts of burglary.
The state’s year-old Automated Fingerprint Identification System had analyzed prints found at a burglary scene in River Edge and identified Villone as a suspect. He was subsequently tied to three other break-ins.
Without the automated system, it’s unlikely that Villone, a 19-year-old Bergenfield resident, could have been tied to the additional burglaries, police said.
Until recently, police in North Jersey could not take full advantage of the computer because they had to travel to Trenton to use it.
But last month, the system was installed at the state police barracks in Totowa. Officials are looking forward to the benefits it will bring.
The computer has 1 million fingerprints in its memory and can identify suspects within 23 minutes.
Since its installation in May 1990, it has identified suspects in more than 360 cases, including 28 homicides, state police Sgt. Phil Boots said.
But before the system came to the Totowa barracks April 23, only five of those identifications were for Bergen County crimes. Other North Jersey law enforcement agencies fared little better, Boots said.
Before computerization, a detective who took fingerprints from a crime scene had to compare them with file cards containing fingerprints of known suspects, Boots said.
It would take 167 years to do what the computer does each time it is presented with a print from a crime scene.

Keywords: NEW JERSEY; POLICE; COMPUTER; TECHNOLOGY; CRIME

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – Linda DeVries operating computerized fingerprint system.

100-MPH CHASE, DRUG ARRESTS REPORTED BY PARKWAY POLICE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, April 28, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

Two men were arrested on drug charges and a third led police on a 100-mph chase in three unrelated incidents on the Palisades Interstate Parkway, parkway police said.
In the first incident, police saw motorcyclist Charles Cherry, 25, of Manhattan traveling at a high rate of speed in Englewood Cliffs about 4:30 p.m. Thursday, said parkway Police Chief Vincent Arfuso, who gave this account of the incidents:
After a five-mile chase at speeds reaching 100 mph, Officer Vincent Cammarata stopped Cherry in Alpine. Cherry was issued several traffic summonses, including one for reckless driving, and released on $4,000 bail.
In the second incident, Officer James Paul stopped a car near Tenafly for a broken headlight about 1:50 a.m. Friday. A passenger, Juan Rodriguez Jr., 37, of Newburgh, N.Y., was charged with possession of about an ounce of cocaine and four small packets of marijuana. He was being held in Bergen County Jail on $11,000 bail.
The driver was issued traffic summonses and released.
Ariel Torres, 31, of the Bronx, was arrested about 2:50 a.m. on a charge of illegal possession of a weapon and drugs.
Officer Charles Jones stopped Torres northbound car in Alpine because of broken taillights. When Torres was unable to produce a valid license, Jones ordered him out of the car. Inside the auto, the officer found a loaded, 20-shot 9mm automatic pistol, 10 packets of heroin, and a small amount of cocaine and marijuana.

Keywords: DRUG; POLICE; ROAD; MOTOR VEHICLE; ALPINE; ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS; TENAFLY

COPING WITH THE FEAR NEW GROUP AIDS COPS SPOUSES

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, April 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

One July evening three years ago, as Mary Ann Sorace and her two daughters tidied up in the kitchen of their Paramus home after dinner, a voice over the police scanner sent them into a panic.
“Officer needs assistance,” came the call from her husband, Bergen County Police Officer Edward M. Sorace.
Sorace was in the middle of a confrontation with two drug suspects, one armed with a gun. He ended up arresting one, but the other escaped and was captured later. Sorace wasn’t able to get in touch with his wife for some time.
“The only thing I remembered was being glued to the radio and being afraid to leave it,” Mary Sorace said. “It must have been four hours later before I found out he was OK.”
After four years of coping alone with the fears and frustrations caused by her husband’s job, Sorace resigned in October from her job in the Paramus school system to found a new support group, Concerns of Police Spouses of Bergen County (COPS).
“It’s the stress of not knowing when they leave the house if they are going to be returning, or if you’re going to get that fateful telephone call that something has happened to them,” she said.
The organization, Sorace said, would not become a “wives gripe group.” It will have available to it a family therapist, a minister who is a retired policeman, and other professionals who have pledged to either counsel or help spouses obtain information that would help them cope.
COPS, which had its first meeting last month, is one of a number of such New Jersey groups, including the 20-year-old Pascack Valley Police Wives Association.
Dr. Katherine W. Ellison, a psychology professor at Montclair State College and author of several books on police and stress, said such groups are helpful because they tend to lessen the sense of isolation that police spouses can feel.
“The wives I’ve worked with want to know about the job, but their husbands want to keep them innocent,” Ellison said in an interview. “The sweet little angels know a heck of a lot more than you think. . . . An important thing that can be done is to have the wives teaching the new wives how to cope positively.”
Sorace acknowledged that one of her biggest challenges would be reaching the spouses. Eileen Neillands, wife of Bergen County Police Chief Peter Neillands, and Judith Betten, wife of Rochelle Park Police Chief William Betten, were among 11 wives who attended the first meeting.
Chief Neillands, the evening’s keynote speaker, testified to a host of shirked familial responsibilities during the first 30 of his 40 years in law enforcement, starting with the Leonia Police Department in 1951.
“We get so smart too late,” Neillands said. “I hope people will learn from us, what we did wrong. Mary [Sorace] is going through some of those things that are difficult to go through, and she is crying out, Help me. Some of these other people, they are silent, but they want to be helped, too." Neillands concluded his talk by saying he wished he had not while trying to cure some of society's ills by doing police work abandoned his family all those years. He said he would do all he could to help the group succeed. Eileen Neillands seized on a symbol of the isolation spouses feel when she said that, for all his sins, Neillands was a good husband except at the annual police officers ball. She said the men tend to leave their wives on one side of the room and mingle with fellow officers on the other side. The Neillandses, who have been married for 41 years, have among their five children a son who is a policeman in the Bronx and a daughter about to marry a policeman. "You have to learn to do a lot of things," Eileen Neillands said, "including driving yourself to the hospital to deliver your baby. I did it with my fifth one. He was tied up in an accident or something." Ed Sorace, who said he supports his wife's efforts, said the group would be well worth it if it helps just one police family cope. He sat in the background during the meeting with the couple's 7-year-old daughter, Stefanie. The Rev. Kim F. Capwell, rector of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Glen Rock, said idealism leads many, in their desire to solve their communities problems, to seek law enforcement careers, but also has the effect of isolating them from society and, most acutely, from their families. Capwell spoke from experience. "I was married to a police department for 12 years before I took an early retirement and went into the seminary," he said. "I was very lucky that my spouse stuck with me through 10 solid years of nights with no rotation. We actually got to appreciate that I worked 8 at night till 4 in the morning." Rochelle Park's Chief Betten said he often asks new recruits if they are aware of the demands of the career. "I ask them,Are you aware what a police officer’s job is? ” Betten said. ” Are you aware that you have to work Saturdays, Sunday, holidays, nights?Oh, yeah, they reply. Later on, after they’ve become policemen, suddenly the wives will call you: `How come my husband is working on Christmas day? Many spouses don’t know what to expect when they get into this.”
The next meeting of COPS is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Paramus High School, room 616.

Keywords: POLICE; FAMILY; COUNSELING; ORGANIZATION; MENTAL; HEALTH; PSYCHOLOGY

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – STEVE AUCHARD / THE RECORD – Bergen County Police Officer Edward M. Sorace giving his 7-year-old daughter, Stefanie, a kiss as he prepares to go to work. Looking on is his wife, Mary Ann Sorace, who founded a new support group for spouses of law enforcement officers.

VANDALISM INCIDENTS PROBED IN TEANECK

MICHAEL O. ALLEN | Saturday, April 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

Township police are investigating five incidents of vandalism along Teaneck Road in which windows at two businesses, a private residence, and the Bryant School were broken Thursday night.
In the first incident, about 5:30 p.m., a woman reported that someone threw a rock through the passenger side window of her car parked on Sherman Avenue, near Teaneck Road.
The vandalism occurred in the wake of an impromptu march Wednesday by students marking the first anniversary of the death of Phillip C. Pannell, a black 16-year-old who was shot by a white township police officer. The window of a police cruiser was shattered.

Keywords: TEANECK; DEMONSTRATION; ANNIVERSARY; VANDALISM; POLICE; SHOOTING; YOUTH; DEATH

PANNELLS MAKING A `MEMORIAL JOURNEY’

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, April 10, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B03

The family of Phillip C. Pannell will make a “memorial journey” to the youth’s grave in Fair Lawn this morning.
The event, announced Tuesday by the Rev. Herbert Daughtry on the steps of the Municipal Building, is one of several planned today to mark the anniversary of Pannell’s death.
Daughtry was joined by Pannell’s parents, Phillip D. and Thelma Pannell; their 14-year-old daughter, Natasha, and black leaders as he announced the graveside visit. The Pannells will travel to the grave by car with members of community groups, all assembling at 10 a.m. at the Shiloh AME Zion Church in Englewood.
Another observance is planned today at the township high school, which Pannell attended. Principal James DeLaney said students will reflect on the events of the past year between 1:15 and 2 p.m.
Pannell, 16, was shot by Officer Gary S. Spath, who is awaiting trial on a charge of reckless manslaughter. Police say the black youth was reaching for a loaded gun when he was shot by the white officer. Witnesses have said Pannell’s arms were raised. The shooting inflamed racial tensions in Teaneck.
Wednesday night, Daughtry, a Teaneck resident who is national minister of the House of the Lord Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, is scheduled to preside at a memorial service for Pannell at the Community Baptist Church in Englewood. It will begin at 7.
On Saturday, marchers will meet at noon at the Bryant School, near where the shooting took place, and walk to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, Daughtry said.
Also present at Tuesday’s news conference were the Rev. Al Sharpton; Dr. William B. Jones of the African Council; Robert H. Robinson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and the Rev. Stanley Dennison, president of the Black Clergy Council of Englewood-Teaneck and vicinity.
Record Staff Writer David Voreacos contributed to this article.

Keywords: TEANECK; BLACK; YOUTH; SHOOTING; DEATH; POLICE; ANNIVERSARY

PATROLS UP AFTER FOUR ROBBERIES

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B05

Police have beefed up patrols of city streets after a 40-year-old woman walking to her car in a municipal parking lot was robbed, the fourth such incident in a week.
Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said three of the robberies appeared to have been committed by the same two young men.
The woman, whom Tinsley declined to identify, was robbed about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday as she returned to her car in the parking lot off West Street, after leaving the McDonald’s restaurant on West Palisade Avenue with her 8-year-old son.
“She was pushed to the ground and the suspects took her purse, which contained approximately $140 and other valuables worth about $250,” Tinsley said. Neither the woman nor her son was injured.
A 30-year-old man reported that two young men grabbed him and one punched him in the face as he walked along Engle Street, in front of the public library, about 8 p.m. Sunday, Tinsley said.
The man, robbed of the $45 in his wallet, was treated at Englewood Hospital for facial wounds and released, Tinsley said.
The other two robberies took place Friday night. In what was first reported to police as a fight about 7:30 p.m., a 45-year-old man was assaulted by about eight people as he walked along James Street near Palisade Avenue, Tinsley said. The man’s wallet was stolen, along with $400 and identification cards, including an alien-immigration card.
Tinsley said a 30-year-old woman was robbed of her gold ring and necklace by two young men who asked her the time as she walked along Demarest Avenue about 6:30 p.m.
Police are also investigating whether the assault and attempted armed robbery of a 14-year-old boy at about 4 p.m. Monday was related to the spate of robberies, Tinsley said. One youth was in custody, and police expect more arrests in the case.

Keywords: ENGLEWOOD; ROBBERY; POLICE

BRIDGE CHIEF TAKES WING; TOP COP AT AIR HUBS IN NATION’S CAPITAL

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 27, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | Section: SOUTHEAST/YOUR TOWN RECORD | Page 3

The retired commander of the George Washington Bridge took down the awards and plaques adorning his office with a pang of sadness, but a few weeks later, he was hanging them up at his new job as police chief for Washington’s airports.
Capt. Joseph Hurtuk went from overseeing one of the world’s busiest bridges to monitoring the airports that ferry some of the nation’s top lawmakers. In January, Hurtuk became police chief and chief of operations for Washington’s National and Dulles International airports.
“Being a Jersey kid all my life, it’s a big move. I’m not frightened of it though,” said Hurtuk, 45.
During his 23 years with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police, Hurtuk held several positions, including head of the Port Authority Police Academy and commander of the George Washington Bridge and Bus Station for the last 3 1/2 years.
Hurtuk’s most important task as bridge commander was keeping the traffic moving on the Hudson River crossing. With 300,000 motorists using the bridge each day, even a minor accident can snarl traffic for hours.
Over the years, Hurtuk’s job became increasingly difficult due to the growing volume of motorists, as well as the drug traffic that used the bridge.
Hurtuk, who retired as bridge commander in December, drew words of praise from Port Authority Police Chief Charles Newman and Ken Philmus, manager of the bridge.
“Joe had a tremendous impact on deciding which roadways to close and which ones to keep open,” said Philmus.
Added Newman, “We never gave him an assignment that he didn’t do to the best of his ability and in a superior manner. “
Hurtuk, who lives in Hillsborough, displayed the same devotion to volunteer work for retarded children and adults, becoming the director of New Jersey’s Law Enforcement Torch Run in 1984. New Jersey police officers have raised thousands of dollars for the Special Olympics, and the tally exceeded $300,000 in 1989.
“It’s just a way of giving back to people who are less fortunate than I am,” Hurtuk said. “Special Olympians try to do their best, and we in law enforcement have a certain synergism with them because we are trying to do our best, too.”

Keywords: FORT LEE; BRIDGE; POLICE; OFFICIAL; RETIREMENT; WASHINGTON, DC; AVIATION; JOSEPH HURTUK