Tenafly police officers' boss 'very proud' after traffic incident with PA commissioner

Tenafly Police Chief Robert Chamberlain said he's been fielding congratulatory emails and calls ever since a dashcam video was released that showed Port Authority Commissioner Caren Turner pulling rank and repeatedly insulting two Tenafly police officers who had pulled over a vehicle in which her daughter was a passenger. 

The officers, Matthew Savitsky and Tom Casper, remained polite and professional throughout the March 31 incident, even after she snapped at them for calling her "miss," demanding they call her "commissioner," and later told them to "shut the f--- up." 

She also threatened to go their boss to complain about them.

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"I'm very proud of the officers," Chamberlain said, adding that their demeanor is representative of his entire department. "Messages are coming in from as far away as Texas, Michigan and South Carolina praising them and wanting them to be commended." 

New Jersey's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, on Wednesday night publicly praised the conduct of the two Tenafly officers who stopped Turner.

"I was heartened to see the two officers in a very, very, very difficult situation perform their duties with honor, with patience, and with restraint," Grewal said in a speech in Paterson during the swearing-in ceremony for the city's new police chief.

Turner was forced to resign last week, after Port Authority officials viewed the clip in which she boasted of her prestigious title, her friendship with Tenafly Mayor Peter Rustin and her three homes. 

She was called to the traffic stop on Route 9W to pick up her daughter and her friends because the Toyota in which they were riding was being impounded by the police for having an expired registration since 2016.

As seen in the video, Turner arrives at the scene, shows the officers a card and says, "I'm a commissioner of the Port Authority and I'm heading up over 4,000 people. OK?"  

Later, when officers tell her she can drive the young adults home, she says: "You may not tell me when to take my child. You may shut the f--- up and not tell me when I may take my kid and her friends, who are Ph.D. students from MIT and Yale." 

At the end of the video, she informs the officers, "This isn't going to go down nicely."

Port Authority officials, in a written statement, said, “The video speaks for itself. The conduct was indefensible, The Board takes its recently adopted Code of Ethics for Commissioners extremely seriously and was preparing to form a special committee to review the findings of the Inspector General investigation and take action at this Thursday’s Board meeting. Commissioner Turner’s resignation was appropriate given her outrageous conduct.”

'Verbal judo' training

Chamberlain said sensitivity and verbal judo are emphasized during police training. "Police learn to stay calm and work through the incident, whatever it may be," he said.

The occupants of the car gave police no problem at all. "They were super polite. There were no issues with them. It was a minor vehicle violation but one that requires the vehicle to be impounded," Chamberlain said. 

Rustin, the mayor, commended the police. He acknowledged that he is friendly with Turner but stopped short of saying they are good friends. "Look, I'm friendly with her. I know her. Do we socialize? No. I've been mayor for 15 years. I know a lot of people, and I'm friendly with many of them. To be honest, three-quarters of the people who get stopped by the police probably say they're friends with the mayor."

Turner, in a statement issued Wednesday, apologized for losing her temper. At the same time, she urged Tenafly police to review policies on de-escalation.

"As a long-time Tenafly resident, I have always taken an active role in the community, including working with law enforcement officials, and I encourage the Tenafly Police Department to review best practices with respect to tone and de-escalation, so that incidents like this do not recur."

Dashcams 'a good thing'

Cresskill Police Chief Edward Wrixon said such incidents are growing more frequent and he constantly reminds his officers to be professional and remain calm.

"This is another reason why car cameras are a good thing. They show the truth, whether in favor of the police officer or not." In addition, cameras keep people on their best behavior, he said. "When you know you are being watched, you behave more professionally." 

The Tenafly officers, he said, "were extremely professional and behaved exactly as they should despite the scene she made." 

Fair Lawn police Sgt. Brian Metzler said such situations happen frequently. "We get a lot of encounters when people either yell at us or yell at each other and we have to handle it. This time it happened to be an important public figure, so obviously the video has gone viral," he said. Turner, in addition to her former role as a Port Authority commissioner, is a lobbyist.

Police academy trainees learn not to take it personally when people scream at them. "They do scenarios with the to prepare them for the situations they might encounter," he said.

Chamberlain said he felt obligated to turn the video over to the Port Authority to let them know what had transpired. But he said he feels bad about the outcome.

"I wish this didn't occur," he said. "I didn't want it to become a media circus." 

"I feel for her," he said about Turner. "I wish her well."

Joe Malinconico of the Paterson Press contributed to this article.