STAFF REPORT
NORTHERN VALLEY PRESS
The embattled chief of the Palisades Interstate Parkway (PIP) Police Department—who is serving a 90-day suspension after a critical Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office report on his agency—was busted for allegedly buying cocaine on the internet last week, prosecutors said.
PIP Police Chief Michael Coppola was charged with attempt to possess cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia on Aug. 9, Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Dennis Calo said in a statement.
The news comes about a month after a July 12 report from Calo’s office that found numerous violations at the PIP police department—including unauthorized high-speed pursuits exceeding 100 mph and use of the internet to lure small-scale narcotics dealers to PIP-patrolled property to arrest them.
In one case cited by investigators, a man died when he fell from a cliff while trying to evade officers after a motor vehicle stop. The incident was not reported to the Prosecutor’s Office as required, the report states.
Now Calo’s office has said an investigation revealed Coppola, 43, of Totowa, had been purchasing cocaine via the Internet, with delivery made to a post office box he maintained.
“In response to a recent Internet purchase of cocaine by Coppola, detectives placed a package containing imitation cocaine in Coppola’s post office box,” said Calo in a statement. “On Aug. 9, 2018, Coppola retrieved the package, which he believed to contain cocaine, from the post office box. Shortly thereafter, Coppola was arrested during a motor vehicle stop by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office on Route 80 East in Ridgefield Park.”
Coppola’s first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack will be Aug. 22, where he’ll answer to the third degree attempt to possess cocaine charge and the disorderly persons offense of possession of drug paraphernalia.
Report led to suspension
The July report that imposed Coppola’s 90-day suspension followed eight months of monitoring and review by Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, initiated following the death of a motorcyclist in May 2017 during a high-speed pursuit, which combined with other incidents indicated “a potential pattern of violations,” said BCPO’s report.
The BCPO report found that PIP police broke state pursuit policy guidelines in 36 of 41 high-speed chases since January 2014.
Moreover, in 23 reported pursuits, officers exceeded 100 mph and in 13 cases, police vehicles reached speeds exceeding 120 mph.
In addition, a review of police records from January 2014 through August 2017 revealed police: wrongly used roadblocks three times; illegally hit fleeing suspects’ cars twice; used police vehicles to box in suspects’ cars twice; pursued suspects into oncoming traffic four times; illegally pursued suspects driving down parallel roads 10 times; and used two police vehicles to pursue a suspect seven times without getting a supervisor’s approval.
In addition, it found “there were no [internal affairs] investigations of any of these violations and no discipline of officers for any of the violations.”
In addition to numerous incidents pursuing vehicles without cause and recklessly, the BCPO report revealed a PIP Police Department that misused police tactics and awards, offering $200 meal allowance incentives, better parking spaces and newer police vehicles to officers who wrote the most tickets or made the most arrests.
The report also found the police chief with “a potential severe conflict of interest” due to the chief’s relationship with CJIS Solutions, an information technology company that provides IT services to the department. It recommended severing the chief’s relationship with CJIS, although it stated criminal action was not warranted.
Corrective actions
Following installation of a monitor by the Prosecutor’s Office, the department’s 28 officers were also retrained on Attorney General policies regarding pursuits, use of force, bias crimes and racially influenced policing and internal affairs procedures, the report said.
“To our knowledge, during direct oversight by the monitor [begun November 2017] there have been no violations by the [department] of any Attorney General or BCPO directives and the [department] has performed its core patrol function well.”
“This indicates that, with proper direction, the [department] can be a disciplined and effective law enforcement agency,” the report notes.
State Assemblyman Gordon Johnson—a longtime critic of the PIP police—told Northern Valley Press in July the report found “a breakdown in the chain of command” between a chief and his officers and between Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the chief.
Johnson charged the commission “does not have the ability to manage this [police department].”
Johnson noted seven years ago, the department was accused of various wrongdoings, such as racial profiling and harassing same-sex couples.
“It was obvious then that there was a problem,” he said.
Johnson said he would propose a bill in September to help fix deep-seated problems.
The bill would transfer authority over the PIP police to the state Attorney General or State Police; require the Attorney General to appoint a civilian police director to oversee the PIP police; move the PIP police budget from the state Department of Environmental Protection and put it under the state Attorney General’s Office; and require officers to write moving violations under Title 39 instead of Title 32.
“There’s no reason why a chief cannot have full command over a department of only 28 officers,” Johnson noted.
The report concludes noting the Prosecutor’s Office “stands ready to assist whomever the (PIP Commission) may appoint to ensure the proper functioning of the department.” It then adds it will continue to monitor the police department “until it is capable of efficient operation without direct oversight.”
The Palisades Interstate Parkway Police Department patrols an 11-mile stretch of the parkway in New Jersey that runs from George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee to the Bear Mountain Bridge in New York.
The department’s officers patrol the Palisades Interstate Park, an elongated sliver of forested parklands, trails and cliffs that span about 12 miles between the New York State line and Fort Lee.
This article is based on a July 23 report by Northern Valley Press Staff Writer Michael Olohan