BACK: Cops like these have been reassigned to the Battery Tunnel and other MTA crossings, days after the March 27 Post revealed they’d been cut. (Theodore Parisienne)
BACK: Cops like these have been reassigned to the Battery Tunnel and other MTA crossings, days after the March 27 Post revealed they’d been cut. (
)
The MTA has redeployed bridge-and-tunnel cops to most of its city crossings, less than two weeks after The Post revealed their numbers had been slashed, law-enforcement sources said.
The agency is now stationing one officer in a patrol car at most of the nine crossings, although coverage is still spotty at some bridges.
Before the cuts, there were bridge-and-tunnel cops in at least two patrol cars stationed at each of the crossings, which handle nearly 1 million drivers a day.
“Every place is short-staffed right now,” griped a law-enforcement source. “Manpower is pretty low.
“There is a big terrorist threat to the City of New York. That’s no secret, and I think it’s irresponsible.”
In addition to helping thwart terror, bridge-and-tunnel cops’ duties include stopping potential bridge leapers. They also make collars for unlicensed driving, as well as for drug and gun possession.
The MTA oversees the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens-Midtown tunnels, as well as the Verrazano, Triborough, Throgs Neck, Bronx-Whitestone, Henry Hudson, Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges and Cross Bay Veterans bridges.
Last month, the MTA cut patrol cops posted at the crossings and had police from speed enforcement do both jobs, sources said. But patrol cops have now been put back at most of the crossings, sources say.
An MTA spokeswoman said no patrol cars or personnel had been eliminated, although she would not discuss specifics.
“They are being deployed in a more efficient manner to better serve and fit in with our security plan,” said the spokeswoman, Judith Glave.
Still, on weekdays, there are no patrols on the Whitestone or Throgs Neck bridges between midnight and 8 a.m., sources said.
And on the Throgs Neck, patrols are sporadic even through the rest of the day.
On one recent busy Friday night, a Post reporter spent four hours at the bridge without seeing a single bridge-and-tunnel officer — just several parked patrol cars with no cops. One patrol car was used to block a toll lane.
A toll-booth worker said she hadn’t seen any bridge-and-tunnel cops the whole day.
Asked about security, she pointed at the empty cars and joked, “We have security. There they are.”
Sources say MTA brass has been cutting costs by eliminating security positions created or expanded after 9/11, even though the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority generates $800 million a year in revenue for the agency.
Some manned security posts, for instance, have been replaced with surveillance cameras, such as at the Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels.