Aug 22, 2007 8:32 pm US/Eastern
Police Trip To Hooters Leaves N.Y. Town Copless
Deerpark Force Went On Trip To 'Build Camaraderie'
by Jay Dow
DEERPARK, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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A group of off-duty police officers are under scrutiny after the Deerpark Town Council says the officers may have put the small Orange County town at risk when they decided to take a group trip to a local Hooters restaurant.
A group of off-duty police officers are under scrutiny after the Deerpark Town Council says the officers may have put the small Orange County town at risk when they decided to take a group trip to a local Hooters restaurant.
On any given night, between 4 p.m. and midnight, the town keeps two of its 18 officers on duty. Last Thursday, however, the town was left vulnerable while three carloads of off-duty officers surrounded themselves with the scantily-clad waitresses at a Hooters 30-minutes away in Franklin, N.J.
"It's a shame, we didn't have no police around," said Deerpark resident Barbara Crespot.
The mishap came to light Monday during a closed Town Council session.
Town officials say Chief Bill Werner -- who did not immediately return calls to CBS 2 HD -- failed to replace an officer who was suspended pending an internal affairs investigation. That left one part-time officer on the schedule, who backed out of the job that night because he did not feel comfortable working alone.
It's important to note that all of the officers who went on the trip were off-duty that night. The issue is whether there should have been more than one officer on the schedule while they were there.
A local paper printed a copy of a flyer signed by Werner, in which he's quoted as saying the trip was organized "to build camaraderie."
He adds: "There was not ample coverage because of personnel reasons."
Ultimately, one New York state trooper wound up covering Deerpark and neighboring Mount Hope at the same time.
Still, not everyone sees a problem. "Absolutely not. Well, I do now [though] because they didn't call me [to go on the trip.] I hope my wife doesn't see this," joked resident Joe Conklin.
It's still unclear why Werner never switched one of his off-duty officers from Hooters duty to police duty. Town Council members say they are disturbed the trip, and plan to investigate the matter further.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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