If someone ever decides to make this into a movie, they’ll have about a million different directions to take the film in. Now, the state police union is demanding a review of the manhunt for Ralph “Bucky” Phillips. As this
The president of the Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers, Sgt. Daniel M. DeFedericis, criticized the manhunt in a letter sent on Tuesday to Gov. George E. Pataki, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and several state lawmakers. In the letter, which he also sent to reporters, Sergeant DeFedericis said turf wars among investigators, as well as poor management, enabled Mr. Phillips to elude troopers who were, at times, literally lost.
“At one point during the detail, two troopers became lost in the woods and a state police helicopter had to be used to find them,” he wrote. “Had there been proper command and control, incidents like this never would have happened.”
He called for an investigation of the manhunt, as did Assemblyman William L. Parment, a Democrat from Jamestown, a city in the search area. “During the process of the search, I had numerous complaints from constituents who felt the search was not being properly conducted,” Mr. Parment said.
The state police superintendent, Wayne E. Bennett, said at a news conference in Albany yesterday that he would welcome an independent investigation, and that police investigators would look into the incidents described in the letter. Mr. Bennett said he knew of no complaints from troopers about the manhunt.
Governor Pataki issued a statement later, praising the troopers’ work in the manhunt and saying the review was under way. “We look forward to the timely completion of that review,” he said.
DeFedericis also said that the state police rebuffed an offer of help from the FBI for several weeks. The union letter described exhausted troopers working weeks of double shifts and supervisors at times “ranting and raving” and bullying troopers, or donning camouflage uniforms and joining the search instead of supervising.
On Aug. 19, a trooper following a suspicious motorcycle identified its driver as Mr. Phillips as he was entering a house. But before backup officers could arrive, he had escaped again, the state police have said. Sergeant DeFedericis said the trooper was initially denied backup because of a policy of “measured response” to sightings.
In a statement, a spokesman for the New York State Police, Lt. Glenn Miner, said, “We welcome the input of the P.B.A., and all members of the New York State Police, and trust that in the future, when there is an issue of health and safety regarding an ongoing matter, that it will be brought to the attention of management immediately, not weeks later.”
I’m no big union supporter, and I don’t know how accurate these allegations are, as I’ve mentioned several times before, I was less than impressed by what I saw of the manhunt.