Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cash-strapped police seek private cash 07/22/03

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 23:33:45 -0400

Police Capt. Michael O'Neil shows the media a room funded by the New York City
Police Foundation where detectives can monitor overseas television in the
counterterror command-and-control center.
http://www.charleston.net/stories/072203/wor_22police.shtml

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Charleston.Net >
News > World/Nation

Story last updated at

9:08 a.m.

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Cash-strapped police seek private cash

Associated Press

NEW YORK--In the nearly two years since the World Trade Center attack, the Police Department has posted detectives overseas, taught officers exotic languages and acquired a mobile lab to detect chemical or biological attacks -- all of it courtesy of Pfizer, Motorola and other donors.

The money is contributed to the New York City Police Foundation, a little-noticed charity whose marriage of philanthropy and public safety is being replicated nationwide.

Police departments with shrinking budgets and a growing list of duties are using nonprofit foundations to solicit donations for new, and sometimes controversial, projects.

FILE/GREGORY BULL/AP

Police Capt. Michael O'Neil shows the media a room funded by the New York City Police Foundation where detectives can monitor overseas television in the counterterror command-and-control center.

"Running a modern police department is not a cheap proposition," said Karen Wagener, president of the Los Angeles Police Foundation.

"The model of having these public-private partnerships is the way things are going."

In the past five years alone, at least 10 foundations have been launched around the country, said New York City Police Foundation president Pam Delaney, whose group gives seminars on establishing them. Atlanta, Detroit, Omaha, Neb., and Oakland, Calif., all have police foundations based at least in part on New York's.

In Oregon, the Portland Police Foundation sent the chief and seven officers to a 10-day Spanish-immersion course in Mexico. In Los Angeles, the foundation bought digital cameras for domestic violence investigations and telescoping mirrors that enable bomb squads to examine hard-to-see places.

Los Angeles' new chief, former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton, is personally raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for L.A.'s foundation.

Critics question whether the practice of mixing private money and police work subverts the usual government protections against favoritism and conflicts of interest. Los Angeles, for example, has been criticized for designating money for consulting contracts with Bratton's former associates.

"When the police foundation goes out and buys things on its own, or hires consultants on its own, all of those protections are not followed," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a University of Southern California law professor.

Police and foundation officials say they guard against the possibility of wealthy donors winning undue influence.

Without question, some donors are helping themselves. The handbag manufacturer Coach, Major League Baseball and the Motion Picture Association of America earmark their donations for the NYPD's trademark-infringement unit, contributing to a $200,000 account that is used to make undercover purchases of counterfeit CDs, clothes and other goods.

Supervising Sgt. Tom McFadden said the funding does not compromise his unit's independence.

"We're not doing it on behalf of Ralph Lauren; we're not doing it on behalf of Tommy Hilfiger. We're doing it to get the person who's doing the counterfeiting," he said.

The New York City Police Foundation has been around for 32 years, but until recently, it funded traditional items, such as police horses.

Nowadays, it supports more ambitious projects and has far more money to spend.

Its annual budget has nearly tripled since the World Trade Center attack to roughly $6.8 million in the just-ended fiscal year, enabling the NYPD to undertake projects without having to deal with City Hall red tape.

The foundation provides $200,000 annually to pay the expenses of detectives posted overseas in cities such as Tel Aviv, London and Lyons, France.

It arranged for Agilent Technologies to donate a van stocked with gear to detect a chemical or biological attack.

And it funded a $1.2 million high-tech counter-terror operations center and $50,000 worth of lessons in Urdu, Farsi, Pashtun and other languages for detectives assigned to intelligence and counterterrorism.

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