You Just Can’t Make This Shit Up!

Patrolwoman Sonia Henriques made the request to Police Chief Antonio V. Amodio Jr. She said she was concerned about putting her unborn child at risk while on patrol duty.

At a Township Council meeting Monday night, which Henriques attended, Mayor William F. Larkin said the township should come up with a policy to deal with a police officer’s pregnancy.

Last month, Henriques was awarded a medal of valor from the Monmouth and Ocean County Intelligence Bureau. In the early morning hours of Dec. 6, she persuaded a person who had pointed a loaded gun at her to calm down and ultimately surrender.

Henriques appeared at the meeting with Patrolman Bruce Friend, president of Police Benevolent Association Local 57, who appealed to the mayor to intercede on her behalf.

“She is expecting her first child in November,” Friend read from a prepared statement before the mayor and council. “This news, however, is tempered by the fact that she should not be working on the road anymore. As you can imagine, she and her doctor believe that doing so, while carrying a baby, would be unwise given the potential exposure to physical harm or communicable diseases.”

Despite a number of desk jobs available at police headquarters, Friend said that management has told Henriques that her only option — other than remaining on the road — is an unpaid leave of absence.

Amodio, who did not attend the meeting, said in a telephone interview late Monday night that he is bound to follow the township’s administrative policy on the matter. He said there is no policy for dealing with a pregnant police officer.

Of 62 officers on the force, just two are women.

Moreover, Amodio said, all available “meaningful” positions — ranging from dispatch to archiving records and reports — in the department require some level of specific training or certification that Henriques does not necessarily possess.

“There are probably tasks in the department that you could have somebody do that are not considered meaningful, and if that is the direction and the policy that the council and the manager want to go . . . Yes, you could have someone sitting there shredding paper, too, for that matter.

“I know what the PBA is trying to paint me as, but I am trying to look at this as fairly and as objectively as I can based on the limited authority I have and the past practice, and apply that to what’s best for the organization, best for the taxpayer and best for the employee,” Amodio said. “I don’t have the authority to just say come on in and do a meaningless job until your pregnancy is over.”

Friend said management has had plenty of time to come up with a maternity policy. In fact, he pointed out, that scenario was raised as a hypothetical at a departmental meeting in either January of 2006 or of 2007.

Amodio acknowledged that the issue had been raised at such a meeting, but at the time he said the matter could only be addressed when an officer became pregnant. Now that that has happened, the matter will be addressed.

“It’s important to note that this agency has had ample time to develop a plan for this particular situation,” Friend said. “It has employed female officers for many years now, and the subject of pregnancy has been visited over time.”

Friend explained that there have been many examples over the years where male officers have been placed on light duty for various illnesses and injuries.

“All we are asking, Mr. Mayor, is that you and (township manager Andrew) Brannen intercede on this issue and reverse the chief’s position,” Friend said. “Officer Henriques is entitled to the same treatment as any of our other officers. We do not understand why the chief has denied this one officer the same accommodation that has been provided to others.”

Regarding the township’s policy, Brannen said: “I don’t know that we have one specific to pregnancy . . . Certainly, we can make a request tonight that we review that and see what we can do.”

“I certainly think we should,” Larkin said.

Township counsel Martin J. Arbus interjected that the municipal government was empowered to do so.