This is why Paterson's biggest developer is condemning the city's police force
PATERSON — One photo shows a man sitting in a city apartment building stairway with a gun on the floor next to him.
A second is of a woman holding a knife pointed at the door of a nosy neighbor.
The third shows a trespasser inside a vacant apartment where he allegedly turned on the oven for warmth.
Paterson real estate maven Charles Florio said the three photos were taken by security cameras in buildings he owns in the city within a two-day period in mid-October. In all three instances, Florio said, his security staff called police but when officers responded they made no arrests and conducted only superficial investigations.
Florio, a developer who owns several thousand apartments in Paterson, is citing those cases as evidence of the failings of a police department whose officers he has called “lazy.” In frustration, Florio said he has decided to stop letting city police officers view video monitors at his security command center, which he said handles feeds from about 2,400 surveillance cameras on his properties around the city.
“It’s not just me,” Florio said of his displeasure with the Paterson police. “Ask the residents of Paterson. Do they think police response times are good enough?”
'Quality-of-life complaints sometimes have to be put aside.'
The president of Paterson Policemen's Benevolent Association Local 1, Angel Jimenez, said Florio wants special treatment because of his status as the city’s biggest developer. Jimenez said many of the calls from Florio’s security staff seem to involve the real estate investor’s efforts to get problem tenants arrested so they can be more easily evicted.
Moreover, the PBA president asserted that the city’s Police Department is understaffed with a heavy workload, like the outbreak of six October homicides, which he said forced some detectives to work almost around the clock for 10 straight days.
“I’m sorry, but Florio’s quality-of-life complaints sometimes have to be put aside,” Jimenez said. “The homicide investigations are going to be the top priority.”
He said Paterson would have more money to hire more cops if Florio’s developments didn’t get so many tax breaks.
“He doesn’t become our top priority just because he owns all those properties,” Jimenez said.
The PBA president also said Florio’s decision to limit cops’ access to his security command center isn’t as impactful as it might seem. He said the developer previously was selective in deciding when to let detectives look over video recordings.
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What is the New Jersey Attorney General's Office saying?
For the past seven months, the Paterson Police Department has been controlled by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, an intervention that followed years of problems in city law enforcement. Paterson Press asked the agency's press office about the incidents highlighted by Florio, including those involving the man with the gun and the woman with the knife, which resulted in no arrests.
“The Paterson Police Department is reviewing these matters about police response and conduct in regards to properties owned by Mr. Florio across the city,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
State officials said anyone with information about police misconduct can file complaints with the Internal Affairs Division.
“We look forward to future cooperation from Mr. Florio in this or any matters involving public safety in Paterson and when the department is investigating violent crime in and around his buildings,” the Attorney General’s Office said.
Florio has been at odds with the Paterson Police Department time and again. In particular, he has targeted Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale, calling him ineffective and saying he should be removed from his position. Speziale declined to make any response to Florio’s criticism.
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'They still should be doing their job'
Florio insisted that his sympathies lie in favor of law enforcement.
“I love police officers,” he said. “It’s not politically correct, but I’m 100% in favor of the police.”
The developer also said he understands that the Paterson Police Department is woefully understaffed and that changes in the criminal justice system often allow people they arrest to be released within days, sometimes hours.
“But they still should be doing their job,” Florio said.
More than six years ago, the developer said, the Paterson police were doing such a bad job patrolling the 4th Ward neighborhoods where many of his buildings are that he had to hire a private security firm that deployed armed off-duty cops. It was the beginning of what became Florio’s in-house security command center.
Jim Morrison, a retired lieutenant from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, oversees security at Florio’s Paterson properties. Morrison recently discussed the gun incident and knife incident that Florio is complaining about.
The gun incident happened early in the morning of Oct. 20 at Florio’s building at 92 Carrol St., Morrison said. A security worker saw the weapons on video-camera footage and called the police, he said.
By the time police arrived, the man had gone inside an apartment with the weapon, Morrison said. The officers knocked on the door and were allowed inside, as well, he said.
Morrison acknowledged he doesn’t know what took place inside the apartment. He said he doesn’t know, for example, whether the tenant allowed the cops to search for the gun. But the officers eventually left without making an arrest, he said.
Morrison said that based on his police experience, the officers should have gone through the process of getting a search warrant for the apartment. He said the video provided plenty of probable cause for a warrant.
“The gun was there, it was in plain view, it’s in the video,” Morrison said, adding that the cops would have been able to seize the weapon if they had gotten a warrant. “You can’t flush a gun.”
In the knife incident, at 159-161 12th Ave. on Oct. 19, the woman with the weapon had been the target of another tenant’s noise complaint, Morrison said. The video showed her standing outside the other person’s door, holding the knife in a threatening manner, he said.
The police officers who responded to the call were more focused on the noise complaint aspect of the incident than the fact that a weapon was involved, Morrison said. The police officers told the security staff at the building that Florio should handle his own noise complaints, he said.
“They didn’t care,” Morrison said of the cops in that instance. “They didn’t want to be bothered.”
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Charles Florio criticizes Paterson NJ police response times
