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New Port Authority Police Go on Drunken Rampage After Graduation

By Murray Weiss | September 3, 2014 7:27am
 A Port Authority Police Department banner is posted on a barbed wire fence outside One World Trade Center on March 21, 2014.
A Port Authority Police Department banner is posted on a barbed wire fence outside One World Trade Center on March 21, 2014.
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Andrew Burton/Getty Images

NEW YORK CITY — More than a dozen newly minted Port Authority police officers are under investigation for partying so hard after their recent graduation that local police had to be called, DNAinfo New York has learned.

The embarrassing behavior followed the graduation of 249 PAPD probationary officers, the largest class in agency history, at the Dunn Sports Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Aug. 22.

Following the swearing-in, a large contingent headed out to celebrate at a few bars, along with a lieutenant from the academy.

“Everyone was drunk,” a source told “On The Inside.” “They were telling people they were cops and to f--- off, and some were fighting with patrons and themselves, and there was maybe even a little ass-grabbing.”

The rowdy probies ended up in Texas Arizona Bar and Grill near the PATH train in Hoboken, New Jersey, a large brewery and sports bar that boasts 250 beers, waitresses wearing black T-shirts and the “hottest Hoboken Happy Hour."

“It quickly got totally out of control,” a source said of the raucous soiree.

The officers created such a scene that bouncers decided to try to calm them down, but they cursed at them and blew them off saying “we are cops.”

Finally, someone decided it was time to call in the Hoboken police, who notified the Port Authority police when they realized the rowdy officers were members of their force.

But the sight of Port Authority supervisors apparently failed to stop the antics, sources say. Several probies allegedly even trash talked their bosses.

“You would think they would have made a beeline to hide or look for the back door, but some of them could have cared less,” the source said.

The new officers involved in the incident are on probation and can be fired without any redress, officials said.

“If they are going to treat themselves and others at a bar like this, what will they do when they’re on the job?” one source said.

A Port Authority spokesman would not comment on the incident other than to say it was under investigation by the PA's inspector general. Investigators were reviewing video from the evening, sources said.

“Who knows where the investigation is going, but better to get rid of any bad ones now than have a 20-year headache,” another source observed.