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PAPD Chief Robert H. Belfiore
***UPDATE: Port Authority police angry that chief resigns over free ride for daughter (Click link for full story)
Also resigning is Inspector Kenneth Honig, the highest-ranking Port Authority police officer at JFK, who claimed not to have known about the incident, the Post is reporting. Only Belfiore and Honig were disciplined in connection with Stacey Belfiore’s ride, today’s article says.
Investigators from the Port Authority’s Office of the Inspector General began looking into the free September ride after someone in the department tipped them off via email, sources said.
As CLIFFVIEW PILOT reported on Tuesday, members of the PAPD were angered by what they considered an isolated incident that threatened to cost Belfiore, a three-star chief, his job. (See: Port Authority PD’s face of NJ Special Olympics eyed in free ride for daughter )
“It’s a shame,” a ranking officer with the agency told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning. “We can’t even take care of our own.”
“Any one of us would do that,” a PAPD sergeant said earlier this week. “The fact of the matter is we give rides to politicians and their ilk all the time, yet we’re supposed to deny one of our own?”
Besides working for the bi-state agency, Belfiore over the years has become known among hundreds of law enforcement agencies on both sides of the river because of his work with New Jersey’s Special Olympics.
A 61-year-old father of three, he is a member of the organization’s Board of Directors and has helped raise tens of millions of dollars over the past three decades, tirelessly volunteering at events throughout the state, from Cape May up to Saddle Brook and Oakland.
Fifteen years ago, Belfiore was elected to the International Law Enforcement Torch Run Hall Of Fame – one of only 30 law enforcement officers in the world who held the honor at the time.
New Jersey’s is one of the top three torch runs in the world, thanks in large part to Belfiore‘s efforts, which have been recognized by several organizations.
Besides the Torch Run, Belfiore is a regular at Special Olympics and other fund-raising events, from the Polar Bear Plunge in Seaside Heights to the annual Lincoln Tunnel run.
This past November, Belfiore participated in New Jersey’s second annual Thanks ‘4’ Giving Turkey Plunge — held for the first time in North Jersey, at Crystal Lake in Oakland — to raise money for NJ’s Special Olympics.
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