JFK airport cuts overtime for security

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NEW YORK, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Some Port Authority cops say the PA's move to cut overtime for police at Kennedy Airport leaves key security posts created after Sept. 11, 2001, unfilled.

Despite the federal government's warning that terrorists intend to strike in the United States in the weeks before the Nov. 2 presidential election, a money-saving measure restricting overtime was put in place this week by the authority, which manages and maintains the bridges and tunnels between New York and New Jersey, the New York area airports and bus terminals and seaports.

"With all the terrorist talk, it's not prudent that they do it now. They are cutting a lot more posts, more posts than is responsible," a veteran Port Authority policeman told the New York Daily News.

"If you can't do it on straight time, it won't be covered. And there aren't enough cops to do it on straight time, so it's not being covered," said another policeman.

A "patrol tactics" memo obtained by the paper indicates positions now banned from making use of overtime include officers who safeguard runways and passenger-dropoff zones.

Another post stripped of overtime surveillance is the officer responsible for watching Israel's El Al Airline counter.