SEPTA: Striking cops’ claims of more crime are ‘distorted’

Negotiators for SEPTA and transit police are to meet in Philadelphia for a second straight day of bargaining on Thursday, after three hours of talks on Wednesday.

The strike by 219 transit police enters its eighth day on Thursday.

While negotiators met privately at the offices of the Ballard-Spahr law firm, the transit agency and its police traded accusations over the strike's effect on public safety.

SEPTA challenged claims by the striking police that crimes have increased at SEPTA stations and vehicles during the strike. Most of the crimes cited by the union's spokesman actually happened at nearby stores, said SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney.

"This deliberate fearmongering by the FOTP's hired PR representative, distributing grossly distorted crime statistics to the media, is a disservice to the officers of the SEPTA Transit Police and Philadelphia Police," said SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney. He said only 4 of 20 cited crimes happened on SEPTA property, and one of those occurred before the strike began.

Transit police spokesman Anthony Ingargiola acknowledged that detailed police reports showed that many of the crimes did not happen on SEPTA property, but he said the nearby properties typically were protected by transit police, too.

"Whether these numbers are 100 percent accurate or 95 percent accurate or 50 percent accurate, there's no denying that crimes are up," Ingargiola said. "I think the fact is that the public wants us back and SEPTA wants us back, too."

The main sticking point in negotiations appears to be a 35-cent-an-hour difference in a proposed "certification payment" to police. The police are seeking a 50-cent-an-hour payment for each officer, while SEPTA is offering 15 cents an hour.

Officers must meet annual police certification requirements to keep their jobs. The union argues that the officers should be paid extra for meeting those requirements, as are SEPTA locomotive engineers, who get a 57-cents-an-hour certification payment.

SEPTA contends the payment would give police more than other unions and prompt unaffordable new demands from those unions.

The police union and SEPTA had agreed before the strike on the broad parameters of a settlement, in line with the precedent-setting "pattern contract" signed in 2009 with the largest of 17 SEPTA unions, Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents bus drivers, subway and trolley operators, and mechanics.

That would give the police an 11.5 percent salary increase over the five years of the contract, and an immediate $1,250 "signing bonus" for each officer.

The current starting annual salary for officers is $34,612, topping out at $57,351. SEPTA says that, including overtime pay, the typical officer now collects $62,789 a year. An 11.5-percent increase would boost that to $70,600 after five years.

The transit police argue the 50-cent-an-hour certification pay would cost SEPTA less than other increases, such as higher meal payments and uniform allowances, endorsed by a fact-finder brought in by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board last year.

And the police union noted Wednesday that SEPTA had offered a 57-cent-an-hour certification payment to conductors in ongoing negotiations with that union.

"The notion that we're out of pattern is nonsense," said Ingargiola.

The 219 striking officers are losing, on average, $1,357 a week each. It would take an officer nearly two years to make that up if he or she received the additional 35 cents an hour the union is striking for.

SEPTA is saving about $341,000 a week on police salaries during the strike, but is spending about $128,000 a week on temporary security guards and overtime pay for city police, and about $60,000 on overtime pay to its own supervisors.

The agency will save about $3,000 a week by not paying the 35 cents an hour to the police.

Both sides said Wednesday that the continuing negotiations are a good sign that the strike may end soon.