Troopers' boss hit by police complaint

The strained relationship between two law enforcement agencies charged with fighting crime in Camden deteriorated further yesterday as the union representing city police supervisors filed an administrative complaint against the commander of the state police contingent.

The complaint accuses Capt. William R. Higgins, who leads about 40 troopers stationed in Camden, of creating a "hostile work environment" that puts union members at risk of "workplace violence."

Higgins said he could not comment on the allegations, and a state police spokesman also declined to comment.

The complaint asserts that Higgins had to be restrained by a trooper under his command Dec. 8 after Higgins yelled at a Camden police lieutenant.

It also alleges that a trooper made a racial slur to an off-duty Camden patrolwoman. The president of the Camden Organization of Police Superiors, William J. Murray, who filed the complaint, said that when Higgins was asked to investigate the slur, the request was ignored and no action taken.

Murray said Camden Police Chief Edwin Figueroa asked Higgins to transfer the trooper outside Camden.

"Instead, Higgins transferred him to day work - which is kind of a promotion," Murray said. Higgins' "presence has basically shut down any partnership with this department and the state police."

State police said an internal-affairs investigation had concluded that the allegation was unfounded.

The state police have had a presence in Camden since 2002, when then-Gov. Jim McGreevey sent 100 troopers as part of a $175 million state bailout of the city.

City leaders hoped that the reinforcements from Trenton would help the 420-member Police Department crack down on violence and make the city safer for redevelopment.

But Camden crime, which had fallen gradually through the late 1990s, began to spike shortly after the troopers' arrival. The number of homicides has more than doubled from 25 in 2001 to more than 50 this year.

About three dozen troopers remain stationed in a former supper club on the top floor of the Bridge View building. The building, at Eighth and Cooper Streets, also houses an interagency command post.

The complaint states that Higgins cursed and screamed at a Camden lieutenant under his command after three Camden officers riding in an elevator with him failed to salute and say hello.

After the officers' breach of etiquette, Higgins ordered Lt. Ronald Conley and another lieutenant to pack their belongings and leave the building, according to Murray and the complaint.

This is not the first time that tensions between the agencies have risen to a boil.

A scathing memo that surfaced in July criticized the Police Department as bumbling, "overburdened by paperwork," and "inefficiently operated." A subordinate wrote it, but Higgins signed off on the five-page memo, which had been requested by the head of the state police, Col. Rick Fuentes.

Murray said he had "no problem" with rank-and-file troopers serving in the city and would stop short of demanding that Higgins be transferred out.

"I am not going to tell the state police how to run their unit, but there'd be a complete mutiny" if Higgins "tried to have anything to do with our department from here on out," Murray said.

A spokesman for the state police declined to comment and referred calls to the Attorney General's Office.

"We're not going to comment on the substance of these issues," said Lee Moore, spokesman for Attorney General Peter C. Harvey. Moore added that his office's focus would remain on protecting the residents of Camden.

Christine Jones Tucker, Camden's business administrator, said the complaint would be investigated.

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said through his spokesman that he was aware of the Dec. 8 encounter and had tried to resolve the situation informally.

"However, the prosecutor was later advised that the union intended to file, and in fact did file, a complaint in lieu of informal mediation," said Bill Shralow, Sarubbi's spokesman.