By Shawn Boburg
Passaic County Herald News
Security is lax at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Bus Terminal and on a train that links JFK International Airport to other ground transportation, the president of the Port Authority police union said.
Paul Nunziato, president of the Port Authority PBA, told the agency’s commissioners on Tuesday that cars can enter the loading area of the world’s largest bus terminal unchecked. He said the Airtrain linking the New York City subway and JFK does not have an officer assigned to it most days, despite internal security reports that recommend a security presence on the train. And he pointed to police radios that do not function at JFK International and said some on the agency’s emergency response team have expired bulletproof vests.
“That’s unacceptable,” he said.
Nunziato went public about the security concerns at a meeting of the agency’s commissioners on Tuesday, he said, because Port Authority administrative staff and public safety personnel have repeatedly failed to take action. He said the safety concerns were not related to contract talks. The Port Authority police have been working without a contract since January 2010.
Port Authority Executive Director Christopher Ward defended the agency’s approach on security.
“We have spent $3 billion to protect the traveling public,” he said. “We feel with the public access and the need to bring buses in and out of that terminal [the Port Authority bus terminal], and the way our police force is deployed, as well as security cameras and all of that infrastructure, that the riding public should feel safe within all of the Port Authority facilities.”
Copyright 2011 North Jersey Media Group Inc.