All hands on deck
Huge security demands for the GOP convention
mean few will go untapped, including recruits
BY DAN JANISON
STAFF WRITER
Facing big challenges on several fronts, the Police Department
will call up all available hands during the GOP convention, including
enlisting its rawest recruits to direct traffic.
All at once, the NYPD confronts a threatened illegal sickout, troop
strength sapped by budget concerns, new terrorist-threat warnings
from the Bush administration and anti-war demonstrations.
On top of that are the more routine security measures, from blocked
streets to mass-transit concerns, that go with having a national
political conclave in town.
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association activists, meanwhile, have made
the chants "No Contract, No Convention" and "Blue
Flu on Convention Day" their most threatening slogans as they
follow Mayor Michael Bloomberg around the city.
They brought the chanting close to the mayor's landmark East Side
brownstone early yesterday before he took off for the Olympics in
Athens, but Bloomberg said it didn't bother him.
Police acknowledge plans to use recruits during the convention,
but top brass insists all preparations are unrelated to the labor
threat.
"Their role is exclusively traffic control, and that's been
part of the planning all along," Deputy Police Commissioner
Paul Browne said, referring to the cadets. He added that the newbies
will be supervised by senior cops as has been the case in the past.
Overtime costs are expected to be huge, budget experts say.
With or without a confirmed link to the labor dispute, the use
of hundreds who have yet to graduate from the Police Academy led
PBA President Pat Lynch to lament the way attrition has thinned
police ranks.
"We've said publicly that it's not an initiative that the
union instigated or supports," spokesman Al O'Leary said. "Frankly,
they are struggling any way they can to find resources to keep the
city safe."
Some Correction Department insiders said they believed recruits
from a new class formed only last week were being prepared for a
role in convention patrols. Agency spokesman Tom Antenen strenuously
denied any such activity.
The mayor, appearing at the Tweed Courthouse yesterday, said, "We
have the greatest police department and fire department. The people
that work there are not going to strike. They're very proud of the
job they do.
"You've got a handful of hotheads who, late at night, I think
they were gathered together half a block away from where I live,"
he said. "You don't win any friends by yelling and screaming
and waking people up at 1:30 in the morning.
"I slept very well," Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg also warned that the NYPD will be stretched too thin
to accommodate shifting a planned rally of 250,000 by United for
Peace and Justice to Central Park, which is now the group's goal
in federal court.
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