Former transit cops, wearing crisp, new city police shoulder patches, fumbled with unfamiliar forms and new procedures a week after the transit force officially merged with the New York City Police Department.
"It's a little bit confusing," said Sgt. Ron Gazola as he worked on a schedule inside District 11 headquarters at the 161st Street precinct house. "One of the other sergeants had to report a civilian complaint, which is done differently than we used to do it."
The new protocol is all part of the merger of the transit, housing and city police forces, which is scheduled to be completed by May 7. The 4,500-member transit force officially became part of the city department April 2.
There were about 450 transit cops in the borough before the merger and the number covering the subways will remain the same, according to Al O'Leary, a spokesman for the Transit Authority.
O'Leary said none of the civilian employees who had worked for the transit police in the borough would lose their jobs. Meanwhile, city officers will receive special training for policing the subways, including chasing suspects through tunnels. And former transit police officers will learn more about policing the streets, he said.
Gazola, 50, a 24-year veteran on the force, said he hopes the merger won't compromise transit police operations that in recent years have been successful in reducing subway crime by 50 percent in District 11. Lt. Kevin Walsh, of the district, said there were 1,123 felonies reported in 1993, with 523 reported in 1994.
"If the politicians have any brains," said Gazola, "they will certainly leave a lot of the programs we had."
Lt. Anthony Amelio, 44, the daytime force commander, said that as part of the transit police's Quality of Life programs, police officers have cracked down on turnstile jumpers who often go on to commit other crimes on subways.
"We have been doing this so often that people are aware of it," he said. "We hammer, hammer and hammer them."
"The merger really hasn't affected me other than learning new procedures," said Amelio. "The NYPD procedures are similar to ours, but there is, however, still a lot of information I am going to go over."
As he rode the No. 2 train on his commute from Pelham Parkway station to Brooklyn, Joe Gullitti, 32, an employee of Albert Einstein Medical School, said he is concerned about the merger because he wants the transit police to continue specializing on the trains exclusively.
"It is going to be more bureaucracy and less police force," said Gullitti, who said that on one occasion he was once mistaken for an armed fugitive by the transit police. Gullitti said the fact that the police were on the scene so quickly just made him feel more secure.
"I guess my concern is this," said Althea Scott, 25, a social worker worried about the police presence in the subway. "Does it mean there will be less?"
O'Leary said that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has promised better service.
As the No. 2 train left the borough, Tony Torres, 42, an illegal subway vendor, worried that a greater police presence would hurt his business.
"All I do is sell batteries," he said. "And all they do is give us tickets instead of going to get the guys who jump turnstiles and smoke crack in the rear cars."