Tenafly -- Police badges issued decades ago to elected borough officials recently turned up in a longtime former councilman’s possession and now the chief wants them back.
The chief’s concern follows a recent incident where a former council member who had a badge allegedly displayed after reportedly committing a parking offense.
Town officials and the police chief have refused requests seeking the former council member’s identity and where the incident happened.
In a recent borough meeting, Tenafly Police Chief Michael Bruno made a request to current council members asking officials to retrieve the "identical" badges and department identification cards from former council members issued some 40 years ago.
The problem is at least two people have misused them and he wants them back, said council members, adding that it is up to the chief and the Police Department to get them back.
The badges were issued to members of the fire commission, police commission and other borough entities, but the current chief said he had know idea they even existed.
"There’s no valid reason in my mind to issue a badge to civilian personnel," Bruno said. "He was carrying a badge issued 25 years ago — instead of it being with his momentos — so he could show it to someone should he feel the need to."
When reaching for his license after a parking offense, a longtime former councilman displayed his department wallet in search of his identification.
The police officer questioned the man’s possession of the badge and identification and the former official never indicated he was in law enforcement, according to Bruno.
Law enforcement officials said this has been their only recent encounter with the badges, but said they wanted to "avoid any problems in the future."
The Tenafly police chief said the borough is no longer issuing the badges and people who have them have been asked to turn them in.
"It would be impossible to pick though the last 40 years of records and find everyone who was given one," said Bruno. "If officers encounter them in the future, they’ll just take them; they’re borough property."
This isn’t the first time a former councilman has flashed a badge trying to get out of trouble.
A few years back, former Councilman Jeffery Romano showed a badge to avoid arrest after being caught buying drugs, according to police.
