Auxiliary Police See Parking Permit Cut as an Insult
By AL BAKER
One strategy the city has settled on to bring down the number of free parking permits is to take them away from auxiliary police officers. And that has drawn howls of protest from those unpaid and unarmed officers, who saw the placards as a rare perk in an often thankless — and always voluntary — job.
“You are asking someone to volunteer, and then you are not giving them a place to park?” said Glenn J. Kearney, the president of the New York State Association of Auxiliary Police. “They certainly should not have to put a quarter in the meter every hour. That would be completely unfair.”
He added: “Not only are you telling me you are not giving me anything, but now you are turning around and taking away my ability to park my car when I come to give you free service. I have to be able to park. That is common sense.”
Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said he did not know how many of the 4,800 auxiliary officers had been granted parking privileges, but several among them said it was a small number.
Auxiliaries work mostly in the evening, often in far-off corners of the city. They carry no guns, only radios, and until recently the city did not outfit them with bullet-resistant vests.
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