AC mayor's ban on policing casino garages voided

AC mayor's ban on policing casino garages voided

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.

Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford's order barring police patrols of casino garages has been declared null and void.

Atlantic County prosecutor Theodore Housel said the mayor had overstepped his bounds and had no legal authority to prevent police commanders from assigning patrols as they saw fit.

In a letter sent Thursday to Deputy Chief Ernest Jubilee, the department's highest ranking officer, the prosecutor said the decision on day-to-day patrols "is entirely up to you."

Jubilee told The Press of Atlantic City he had temporarily ended the patrols so as not to disobey an order from the mayor. But in light of the prosecutor's directive, Jubilee said he was resuming the patrols at 4 p.m. Thursday.

The patrols began after a man was killed and a woman wounded in a carjacking and robbery at the Trump Taj Mahal parking garage on Sept. 18. It was the second deadly carjacking at the garage in 16 months.

The mayor said in his order that the city government's responsibility is to its residents, "first and foremost."

But Housel said Langford had gone too far. The prosecutor said he was not yet invoking his authority to intervene in the day-to-day operations of the police department, but pointedly noted he has the authority to do so.

Langford has been publicly sparring with Gov. Chris Christie's administration since last summer when the governor unveiled plans for drastically increased state oversight of the gambling resort. The state has created a tourism district in Atlantic City encompassing the casinos, beaches, Boardwalk and shopping areas, with authority over safety, cleanliness and development in that zone.

The mayor reacted harshly, comparing the arrangement with South Africa's apartheid regime, and comparing the way the state treats Atlantic City to the way a pimp treats a prostitute.

Many of the casinos also have their own private security patrols assigned to parking garages. Those patrols remain in place and were not affected by the mayor's order, which was made public at Wednesday night's City Council meeting.

James Kehoe, chairman of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, which oversees the new state-run tourism district, called Langford's action "unfortunate."

"This kind of internal conflict does not help the situation," he said. "It is time the mayor understood that we are all in this together. It is a new day. We need to work together to ensure a safe and viable future for AC's residents and visitors."