The Investigators Exclusive: Brooklyn Bridge security after breaches

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The Eyewitness News Investigators are raising new questions about security at the Brooklyn Bridge after several high-profile breaches.

New York City officials promised better security after the trespassing incidents last year, but what our cameras discovered was surprising.

Our crews checked on police patrolling the bridge on a number of occasions, and we found officers spending time on their cell phones.

It was a frightening breach of security and a big embarrassment for the NYPD when two German artists replaced the stars and stripes on the Brooklyn Bridge with white flags.

Police brass promised tighter security, only to have a Russian tourist walk to the top of one of the towers one month later. And a few months after that, two French tourist scaled the bridge's cables to take photographs.

After that third breach, we decided to investigate.

We found a heavy police presence on the bridge, four small patrol cars, two at each end. But we quickly noticed something else, as well. Some officers assigned to keep an eye out for trouble were instead texting or talking on their smartphones.

On six different days, we went undercover on the bridge. And each time, we found officers tasked with guarding the world-famous landmark instead distracted by their mobile devices.

It was not every officer and not all the time, but it was enough to raise serious questions about the impact of digital distractions on bridge patrols.

"We have to do a better job," Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said.

Adams, a former police officer himself, said our investigation shows better supervision is needed.

"We have to change our human behavior and habits to make sure we are more alert," he said.

On November 25, we found the majority of officers assigned to patrol the bridge that day repeatedly distracted by their phones. One officer who was outside his vehicle was not looking around, but looking down at his handheld.

At another post, the officer was sitting in his patrol vehicle, eyes down, looking at his smart phone and not out at the bridge.

We checked 20 minutes later and found him joined by another officer who had pulled up next to him. Together, they became a distracted digital duo, where for minutes at a time, they seemed oblivious to what was going on outside their vehicles, their eyes glued to their phone screens.

There were four officers on bridge patrol that afternoon, and we found three of them distracted by their phones.

"This is not policing in the 21st Century against a terrorist threat," said Maria Haberfield, the head of John Jay's College of Criminal Justice. "I truly do not understand the thinking behind putting officers in a car on the bridge other than some symbolic deterrent. But I don't think we are looking for symbolic deterrent, but real deterrence."

Professor Haberfeld, who once headed a counter-terrorism patrol in Israel, says police are distracted by their phones because they're bored.

"I would absolutely make changes," Haberfield said. "I would take them out from their cars. I would take them out from standing posts. I would tell them to patrol back and forth."

Last May, we found police inside guard posts at the World Trade Center also repeatedly distracted by their cell phones. Back then, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton seemed rather dismissive about our findings.

"Good for you," he said, when we told him what we had witnessed over and over again. "We'll look at it, see if it is a problem. If it is, we'll correct. Thank you for sharing."

After the ambush killing of two officers in Brooklyn in December, Bratton warned cops not to text while sitting in their patrol cars, but to stay alert. A few weeks later, on January 19, we found officers on the Brooklyn Bridge parked in a way better suited to spot trouble from both the front and behind.

But still, we found most of the officers less than fully aware of their surroundings because of habitual phone distractions.

"If police were actually tasked with patrolling the bridge, there would be less opportunities to be engaged on the phone," Haberfield said.
how the NYPD can fix the problem to make the bridge safer.

Despite several attempts, we have not received a response from the NYPD. It is worth noting that the city is moving forward with plans to equip 35,000 officers with iPads and smartphones.