The Hoboken, N.J., police SWAT team — which is taking heat for racy pictures showing its members frolicking with Hooters waitresses — is no more. Hoboken’s newly named public safety director disbanded the SWAT team shortly after being sworn in on Friday, authorities confirmed.
“The unit itself has been disbanded permanently,” Public Safety Director Bill Bergin told the Jersey Journal. He is a former deputy chief with the Hoboken Fire Department.
Fox 5’s John Deutzman first broke the story about the controversial photos earlier this week.
SEE JOHN’S DEUTZMAN’S REPORTS AND THE PHOTOS
After Fox 5’s story aired, Hoboken’s mayor created the position of public safety director to oversee the police and fire departments.
The SWAT team officers will remain on the force and continue normal police duties, the Jersey Journal reported. Bergin ordered the team’s commander, Lt. Angelo Andriani, to return from vacation and assigned him to desk duty.
Andriani is seen in many of the photos, which were taken outside a Hooters restaurant in Alabama two years ago. The girls posed with weapons for some photos.
The SWAT team was returning from a trip down south in a Hurricane Katrina relief mission when they stopped at the Hooters in Alabama.
Andriani is also under fire from five Latino police officers who have accused him of being a white supremacist. They are suing him for discrimination.
Andriani has told Fox 5 that he and his team were off-duty at the time the pictures were taken. He also said the guns were privately owned and not paid for by taxpayers.
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