Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik stripped five cops from the NYPD’s heavily manned Police Museum and transferred them to the expanding warrants squad to hunt criminals, The Post has learned.
Kerik’s move involving the controversial size of the museum’s police staff is part of his recent push to identify hundreds of desk-bound cops at borough commands and Police Headquarters, and to use them instead to double the warrants squad from 600 to 1,200 members.
That squad has a backlog of 111,000 cases, including 26,000 involving felony suspects, and Kerik believes many of these suspects are probably committing more crimes while on the lam.
The Police Museum, which opened last year under the supervision of then-Police Commissioner Howard Safir’s wife, Carol, ignited a firestorm of controversy when Safir assigned 20 on-duty cops to staff it.
On most days, the number of cops there – including a lieutenant and two sergeants – exceeds the number of visitors stopping by to look at the exhibits and artifacts. “The commissioner ordered an evaluation of police officers in administrative areas, including One Police Plaza, which covers the museum,” Thomas Antenen, an NYPD spokesperson, said of Kerik’s decision.
“This is part of the ongoing analysis to get uniformed officers throughout the agency into law enforcement.”
Kerik recently ordered 300 additional cops to the warrants squad, and is expected shortly to order another 300 to the unit.
Antenen was quick to point out that Kerik “is a supporter of the museum” and that he wants to find ways to better market the nonprofit institution to attract more visitors.
Even before it opened at 25 Broadway, the museum caused controversy because the NYPD agreed to create a police substation near Wall Street if the Alliance for Downtown New York, a local business group, donated space for the museum.