Broadsheet botches story on newly hired PEP

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December 17, 2014- By Steven E. Greer

BatteryPark.TV has been the only news source to accurately report on the fact that the city-controlled Park Enforcement Police (PEP) were not showing up to work in the Battery Park City region at the numbers defined in the contract. We had obtained via FOIL the actual contract between the BPCA and the city, and it clearly specified that at all times, 24-hours a day, there should be at least seven PEP on duty. In the summertime, up to 11 were supposed to be on duty.

However, in reality, the BPC was only getting three PEP in the evening, at most. The sergeants and Captain were almost always “out in the field”, according to the person answering the phones at the office. In fact, they were not on the BPC premises at all.

Our reporting on PEP Captain Falcon’s continued belligerent illegal tactics, despite he being a defendant in lawsuits brought by former BPC resident Adam Pratt, led to the ouster of Captain Falcon this year. He has been replaced by Captain Page Lener.

In addition to a change in Captain, the city is finally now providing the full compliment of PEP as specified by the contact. The BPCA is not paying any greater amount of money incrementally for these new officers. Many of the new PEP were seen on duty for the Monday nigh marina rally.

In today’s Broadsheet (BS), a local advertising flier, a man named Matt Fenton “reported” on the new PEP hired. He got the story all wrong, failing to make any mention of the specific number of PEP in the contract, failing to mention that the new PEP were simply fulfilling the contract, and failing to mention anything about the departure of Captain Falcon. This was likely an intentional omission by the BS knowing that all of the aforementioned topics had been exclusive stories by BatteryPark.TV.