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Across the law enforcement firmament, they are trying to come to terms with one cop causing the death of another, and while we prefer not to assign blame for the tragedy that has befallen the Linden Police Department, they might start their search for answers with this fact:
Before the Staten Island wreck at dawn on March 20, Officer Pedro Abad Jr. already had eight vehicular accidents and two DWIs busts - yet nobody did anything about it, other than allow his time in the penalty box to tick away before he got his job and license back.
His superiors gave him desk duty while his license was suspended for seven months, and for the six months his own car was outfitted with an ignition interlock. If the LPD's Internal Affairs division punished him before restoring him to patrol duty, this hasn't been disclosed. His fellow officers enabled him by climbing into his car for clubbing jaunts.
And all this happened because there is no specific rule preventing cops from keeping their careers after they're nailed for multiple DWIs.
It is especially baffling in Abad's case, since he drove one car through the wall of a supermarket in 2011; and since his 2013 accident and arrest tape exposed a young man in conspicuous need of an intervention.
This must be fixed - with legislation, if necessary.
Cops rarely, if ever, get fired over DWI. The Forfeiture of Office statute doesn't explicitly cover DWI, because it is a traffic violation and not a crime, even though in some cases discrediting one's office with multiple offenses are grounds for termination. You just can't find many prosecutors who concur.
Disciplinary policies, meanwhile, vary by town. There are DWI guidelines from the Attorney General that departments purport to follow, but Linden brass has yet to reveal how it polices its 135 uniformed officers after drunk driving episodes. In that city, off-duty cops "don't have to notify us unless they're charged with an offense," Capt. James Sarnicki said. So even if there's an accident, it doesn't trigger an IA probe.
Sen. Peter Barnes (D-Middlesex) has introduced a bill that establishes a uniform, statewide policy, and he essentially wants to take discipline away from departments with lenient Internal Affairs divisions and give them to a more scrupulous independent agency for oversight.
That's a good start, even though the Senator knows he'll face serious resistance from FOP and PBA factions.
But it would be easier, for now, just to mandate an annual review of driving and insurance records for all police personnel - which is not done in many municipalities, and only "periodically" in Linden, Sarnicki said.
Would such a policy have prevented the tragedy that struck his department, which seemed to categorize this fatal episode as a youthful mistake? Maybe, maybe not. But if someone were actually paying attention, Abad's driving record would have been red-flagged years ago, because ever since he got his license, his life has been demolition derby on a loop.
It's a small and easy thing to enforce, and if cops find it affronting, so be it: Call it a reminder that no public servant should be above the law. Police are supposed to be protecting and serving the public, not putting their lives at risk on the road.
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