Free the NYPD Hostages

Under ordinary circumstances, the Fire Department would not be more likely than the NYPD to be a source of future Port Authority police officers. The fact that it is stems from a desperate - and wrongheaded - attempt by the Police Department to limit the exodus of cops to other jurisdictions where salaries are significantly better.

The NYPD for the past couple of years has withheld the personnel records of officers seeking to transfer to the Port Authority force, which requires such records before hiring those cops. The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association has sued to gain the release of the records, but a state appeals court recently reversed a lower-court directive that the NYPD do so, saying that no injunctive relief was necessary before the case went to trial.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's chief spokesman defended the department's policy, saying it "uses standards recognized and adhered to by employers across the country."

Others might think the employers he was referring to are found in "company towns," where one firm so dominates life in a community that employees are also required to buy its goods at inflated prices and have no recourse because it also controls the town's governance.

Mr. Kelly is understandably concerned about the lack of competitiveness between the NYPD's maximum salary, currently $59,588, and the $90,000 that Port Authority cops can earn after nine years on the job. It is a dilemma that also rears its head in Nassau and Suffolk counties, where the salary gap is even greater and cops qualify for top pay sooner than at the PAPD.

Particularly frustrating for him is the knowledge that the chasm won't significantly narrow even when a PBA contract that is currently 2-1/2 years overdue is finally settled. The PBA is entangled in an interlocking pay relationship with its fire union counterpart, and raises for both unions are often heavily influenced by settlements reached by unions representing Teachers or lesser-paid civilian employees. Neither the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association nor its counterparts in the suburbs are restrained in that fashion, with fire departments generally either voluntary or nonexistent.

We believe, however, that it can be counterproductive, and is indisputably harmful to morale, to bind officers to the department when they have the opportunity to go elsewhere. The frustration cops feel figures to be compounded when they learn that three firefighters were sworn in as part of the new PAPD class earlier this month.

Port Authority PBA President Gus Danese last week questioned why his agency was allowing the NYPD to exercise veto power over potential transfers. He noted that NYPD officers went through a rigorous screening process just to join that force and should be presumed to be fit officers by virtue of their being employed.

It might be countered that without the personnel records, the PAPD has no way of knowing whether those cops are currently facing departmental disciplinary charges or have had previous problems on the job that might raise red flags. But passively accepting the NYPD's opposition to the cops making a transfer raises questions about the PAPD, and whether politics from above - perhaps from the Governor's Office in Albany at the behest of the Mayor's Office - is playing a hand.

It's reminiscent of the days when baseball players were bound by their sport's Reserve Clause, which restricted their movement although their teams could trade them whenever it suited their needs. The monopolistic nature of those practices eventually led to them being scrapped, and rather than causing the chaos that was predicted, free agency ushered in an era in which teams routinely set attendance records.

It may take a court ruling to prove that giving cops similar freedom doesn't have to have a negative effect. Such a ruling could lead the city to reconsider its bargaining policy so that it is less vulnerable to losing officers it has spent extensive time as well as money training to better-paying jurisdictions.

A policy that is the equivalent of a parent's "because I said so" may have trouble standing up under legal scrutiny.