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Port Authority brass yesterday locked down files belonging to the agency’s police Internal Affairs Bureau amid suspicions its former commander helped officers cheat on a promotion exam, The Post has learned.
The bold move comes after an exclusive Post report that IAB commander Capt. John Ferrigno was fired for photographing pages of a sergeant’s exam last year.
The scandal also ended the careers of three other cops, who were forced into retirement this week for allegedly failing to report Ferrigno’s misconduct.
The scandal is rocking the 1,700-member department to its core.
“The Port Authority Police Department has not been in such disrepair since the devastation of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center,” said Paul Nunziato, president of the union representing rank-and-file PA cops.
In the wake of the scandal, the bistate agency’s inspector general is taking over Internal Affairs from the PA Police Department.
Fearing that Internal Affairs officers would tamper with the files, the inspector general yesterday installed a new lock on the file-room door, sources said.
The lock only allows workers cleared by the IG’s office to enter the room, which contains active and archived investigative files.
The entire bureau will be moved from its current office at Port Authority police headquarters near the Holland Tunnel entrance in Jersey City to the Hoboken offices of Inspector General Robert Van Etten, sources said.
“What you have here is a Police Department unit being taken away from the Police Department,” said one stunned insider.
The file-room lockdown is among the Port Authority bosses’ recent votes of no-confidence in the agency’s police force.
Another came yesterday, when officials catapulted Lt. John Ryan, a 33-year veteran, to the post of acting chief of department.
Ryan, who formerly was assigned to the PA’s WTC command, leaped past 18 more senior police officials to take the top uniformed post, sources said.
Ferrigno, meanwhile, lost his job after he used his cellphone to photograph pages of a promotional exam.
Even though several fellow officers saw him take the pictures, and at least three senior commanders were informed of Ferrigno’s action, it was nearly a year before the security breach was reported to the inspector general’s office.
The three top cops forced to retire this week — a deputy chief and two inspectors — allegedly knew Ferrigno took the pictures, but said nothing to their superiors.
There’s no evidence so far that Ferrigno’s photographs were used to cheat on the exam given to prospective sergeants, though the matter is still under investigation.
The lapse angered Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye, who called it “a serious ethical breach” that was possibly illegal.
It also underscored Port Authority cops’ feelings that they had little to fear from IAB investigations overseen by Ferrigno. They expect that to change when Van Etten’s office takes over.
“When you get investigated by the Internal Affairs Bureau, nobody worries,” said one source. “But with the IG, you have a big problem.”