By Matt Katz
Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, N.J. — If the people in charge of enforcing the rules of the road are violating the rules themselves, whom are you going to call?
The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development, apparently.
The agency has cited the Camden Police Department for a “serious” violation after finding that 20 of its vehicles, mostly Ford Crown Victoria police cruisers, were in violation of state inspection laws. The vehicles had expired inspection stickers, stickers showing they had failed inspection, or no stickers at all.
The sticker on one vehicle, a Ford van, expired in September 2002.
City Business Administrator Christine Tucker said the cars and vans, which were observed by a state inspector while parked in a police lot, were part of the “reserve fleet.” They are not assigned to operational police units and are usually not used.
“I’m not going to say they’ve never been driven, but . . . they’re not part of the 250 vehicles we keep in service,” she said.
All the vehicles now will be inspected, and those that are no longer functional will be scrapped, she said.
The state has ordered the city to rectify the problem by Jan. 28 or face a fine of $350 per violation per vehicle - a potential $7,000 - every day.
Specifically, the department was cited for not providing “a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards.”
“Some of [the cars] don’t have heaters. Some of them, the steering doesn’t work. Some have problems with brakes,” said John Williamson, president of Camden Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1.
Williamson said a police officer had issued the complaint that spurred the inspection after he was reprimanded for declaring a beat-up car “out of service.”
“A lot of these vehicles are unsafe,” Williamson said.
Copyright 2009 Philadelphia Inquirer