Councilmen Say Their Wards Mass-Ticketed in Retaliation for Police Contract Vote

An internal investigation is underway at the Cranston Police Department after allegations that police officers were ordered to aggressively issue tickets in wards represented by City Council members who voted against a new police contract last month.

The allegations came to light in nine pages of documents released by City Councilman Steve Stycos at the end of Monday night's City Council meeting, including two anonymous letters purporting to be from rank and file members of the department. They suggest the directive came from Capt. Stephen Antonucci, also the president of the Cranston police union, in apparent retaliation for votes against the contract.

Also see: Fung, if Allegations True, "I do not condone any type of intimidating behavior"

Stycos said he and Ward 3 Councilman Paul Archetto both voted against the contract at the Nov. 14 Finance Committee meeting and immediately afterwards, he said department records show the number of tickets issued in their wards skyrocketed.

Both Wards 1 and 3 are part of different policing districts that encompass multiple voting wards, yet, Styocs said, the issuance of tickets were concentrated in their wards alone. In Ward 2, which is in the same policing district as Ward 1, there was just one ticket on Nov. 15 and 16. But in his ward, there were 66. In Archetto's Ward 3, 62 tickets were issued in contrast to the 5 tickets issued in Ward 5, which shares policing district 2 with Ward 3.

"What appears to have happened is following the rejection of the police contract, somehow an order was given to issue tickets in Ward 1 and Ward 3 to intimidate I think not just the two of us, but every member of this council," Stycos said. "This is a serious matter and we need to find out what happened."

The anonymous letters claim Antonucci made a call to the third shift sergeant the night of the contract vote ordering him to "inform the shift to tag all vehicles parked overnight in the wards of those council members who voted against the [contract,]" one letter states.

City Solicitor Christopher Rawson told the council that the matter is under internal investigation within the police department.

Along with the letters, Stycos provided several pages of addresses that were issued parking tickets that he said prove that the tickets were concentrated in his and Archetto's ward.

"We need to know if the chief was involved, if he mayor's office was involved and we need corrective action," Stycos said, calling for everyone who was ticketed those nights following the Nov. 14 vote to have their tickets wiped out and anyone who has already paid to get their money refunded.

"We have an assumption that policing is fair, that policing is even handed and I think it's outrageous that there has been an apparent attempt at intimidating me directly," Stycos said. "What these tickets say to every member of the council is 'don't mess with the police department because they'll mess with you and that's not what we want from our police department.'"

Archetto said the allegations are very serious and read the police officer's oath into the record.

The contract in question was rejected by the Finance Committee in a 4-3 vote — a major blow to both the union and mayor's office, which now find themselves looking at another round of negotiations.

Council members who voted against the contract took issue with a provision that gave substantial raises to ranking members of the departments (sergeants, lieutenants and captains) that equate to an 11.5 percent pay hike over three years. The union argued that the raises were to bring ranking officers' salaries in line with neighboring cities and towns like Warwick and South Kingstown.

The city's own cost analysis said the contract would only cost the city an extra $454,000 over the life of the contract when factoring in savings through increases in employee contributions to health care and other post employment benefits (OPEB).

But Stycos, perhaps the most-vocal opponent of the contract before the latest allegations, has said he and his fellow council members voting against the contract — Councilwoman Sarah Lee and Councilmen John E. Lanni Jr. and Archetto — believe the contract will actually cost the city an extra $1 million per year by 2015, due in part to the creation of a new step system for ranking members — a first for police contracts in Rhode Island. Normally, only patrol officers see regular step increases during their years of service.

Related: Fung: "If Allegations True, "I do not condone any type of intimidating behavior"

Were you Ticketed? Here's the List