What to Know
- Port Authority commissioner Caren Z. Turner was captured on police dash cam ranting at and cursing at police officers in Tenafly in March
- Her daughter was in a car that had been pulled over; she yells at the cops, "You may shut the f--- up!"
- Turner resigned Monday when she learned she was being investigated by the Port Authority board
A Port Authority of New York and New Jersey commissioner caught on camera delivering an expletive-laced tirade to police officers during a traffic stop has apologized and denies she was seeking special treatment.
Caren Turner issued the statement Wednesday, a day after the Tenafly Police Department released the dash-cam video showing her attempting to pull rank on the officers who pulled over a car in which her daughter was a passenger for a partially obscured license plate and tinted windows March 31.
The video also shows the 60-year-old Democratic lobbyist becoming increasingly agitated with the responding officers and shouting an expletive at them.
In her statement, Turner apologizes for letting her emotions get the best of her and regrets her tone and language directed at the police officers. She resigned her post last week, a move a Port Authority spokesman called "appropriate given her outrageous conduct" in a statement from the agency.
Turner had been called by her daughter that day to pick up her and several friends on Route 9W after the car in which they were riding was impounded, according to a police report. When Turner arrives, video obtained by News 4 shows her introducing herself to the officers, saying, "I'm here as a concerned citizen and friend of the mayor."
She asks why they were pulled over, and an officer responds, "The driver has all the information, he'll tell you all you need to know," adding that she wasn't involved in the traffic stop.
"No, no, no. I'm involved. Trust me. I'm very involved," she said.
Turner shows them something -- later identified in a police report as a Port Authority gold badge -- and says, "I am the commissioner of the Port Authority, and I am heading up over 4,000 police officers, OK?"
"Let's hear -- why were they pulled over, first of all?" Turner says.
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One of the officers responds, "Miss --"
Turner interrupts him, "No, no, no, don't call me 'Miss.' I'm 'Commissioner.' Thank you."
The officer reiterates that she can ask the driver of the vehicle herself why the car was pulled over. Turner does not relent, however, and presses him: "I just want to know why."
The officer tells her, "I just don't appreciate your demeanor. You're being very demanding with me," the officer says.
The tense exchange continues for several minutes. Read more on it here.
Turner was appointed to the Port Authority last year by then-Gov. Chris Christie, and has served on finance committees for Hillary Clinton and Gov. Jon Corzine, NJ.com reports.
