On-duty Edison police officer
abandoned patrol to go home during Super Bowl, complaint says
By Mark Mueller
The marked patrol car sat in
the driveway of an Edison home for nearly three hours during Sunday’s Super
Bowl. The engine idled. The headlights remained on.
But there was no crime here. No
investigation or call for service.
As the Seattle Seahawks routed
the Denver Broncos, Edison police Sgt. Andrew Chupela sat inside his own house
when he should have been patrolling the streets, according to a complaint
lodged by a neighbor.
Chupela, a 29-year veteran who
makes more than $145,000 a year without overtime, is now the subject of an
internal affairs investigation, Chief Thomas Bryan confirmed.
The neighbor, Thomas DeRienzo,
said he has no ill will toward Chupela, 51, but he said he was angered the
officer so blatantly ignored his responsibility to ensure public safety.
DeRienzo called the action all the more bewildering given the intense scrutiny
of the Edison Police Department, which has been rocked by political infighting
and high-profile episodes of misconduct.
"We’ve got carjackings.
We’ve got graffiti all over town. I’ve got people speeding down my street all
the time," he said. "With all the negative publicity, these men have
the audacity to continue to laugh in the faces of New Jersey residents?"
DeRienzo, 62, said he first
noticed Chupela’s police car in the driveway around 7:30 p.m. The officer drove
away at 10:15 p.m. or 10:20 p.m., about the time the Super Bowl ended, he said.
DeRienzo and his girlfriend phoned in a complaint that night, then followed up
in an email to Bryan Monday afternoon.
"Whether he was actually
watching the Super Bowl or not is irrelevant," DeRienzo wrote in the
email, which he shared with The Star-Ledger. "The police vehicle was there
for an extended period of time, and that IS relevant. The taxpayers of Edison
are getting fleeced by guys like this who think they are above the law."
Bryan quickly wrote back,
saying he had listened to the tapes of the complaint DeRienzo and his
girlfriend phoned in and that the matter had been referred to internal affairs.
The chief added in his email
that he was working to "change the culture" of the department.
"I have made improvements,
but there has been much resistance by the unions and the former mayoral
administration," Bryan wrote to DeRienzo. "My commitment is to hold
our officers accountable and provide nothing but the most professional police
services. The citizens of Edison deserve nothing less."
Chupela has an unlisted number
and could not be reached for comment. Efforts to reach him through the
department were unsuccessful. The president of the Superior Officers
Association — the union that represents sergeants, lieutenants and captains —
declined to comment.
Chupela has not been suspended,
Bryan said. The chief declined to say what kind of discipline he might face if
the allegations is sustained by internal affairs.
"Any and all complaints
against a police officer are investigated to their logical conclusion, and if
sustained, the appropriate measure of discipline is administered," Bryan
said.
Officers who have been found
sleeping on the job or performing non-work activities while on the clock are
sometimes suspended and sometimes not, according to a review of news accounts.
In one case in October, a Belleville officer was suspended for falling asleep
in his cruiser while working an off-duty side job.
DeRienzo said that when his
girlfriend made the first complaint by phone Sunday night, a supervisor told
her a letter of reprimand would likely be placed in Chupela’s file.
Bryan confirmed the
department’s cruisers are equipped with GPS units, but he declined to say if
they are regularly checked by watch commanders.
The incident is one of several
episodes of alleged misconduct in the Edison Police Department this year. One
officer was charged with drunken driving after he was seen swilling beer in his
patrol car. Another was suspended for allegedly returning to the scene of an
emergency call to proposition a woman for sex. A third was charged with five
counts of attempted murder for allegedly setting fire to his captain’s home.
