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“The bill in effect transfers supervisory authority over the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police department from the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and confers the transferred supervisory authority on the Superintendent of State Police,” a summary of the measure says.
A similar amendment would have to pass the Senate if this one is approved by the Assembly in order for the takeover to occur.
There had been rampant speculation for weeks about the move, but high-ranking sources in Trenton dismissed it as rumor.
The measure submitted by Assembly members Gordon Johnson — who briefly served as Bergen County sheriff nearly a decade ago — and Charlotte Vandervalk allows the Palisades Interstate Park Commission to appoint patrol officers who live in New Jersey or New York with the approval of State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes “for the purpose of keeping order and enforcing the law….”
The commission would pay their salaries, as well as costs for their uniforms and equipment, according to the proposal.
However, all the ranking officers would go, and the NJSP would train, assign and supervise the remaining patrol officers, under the measure.
Those officers would continue to patrol the commission’s parks, as well as the Palisades Interstate Parkway.
“This act shall take effect the first day of the seventh month after enactment,” it says.
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