Special Operations (Badge of Honor 2)

“Watch it, Peter,” he said.

“So how was your day?” Barbara asked, looking at Peter.

“You mean aside from getting my picture in the papers?” Peter asked.

“What?” Barbara asked, confused.

A waiter appeared, carrying a wine cooler on a three-legged stand.

“Peter was promoted,” Olga Wohl said. “You didn’t see the paper?”

“I don’t think ‘promoted,’” Peter said. “‘Reassigned.’”

The waiter, with what Peter thought was an excessive amount of theatrics, unwrapped the towel around the bottle, showed Peter the label, uncorked the bottle, and poured a little in a glass for his approval.

“I didn’t see the paper,” Barbara said.

“Mother just happens to have one with her,” Peter said, and then, after sipping the wine, said to the waiter, “That’s fine, thank you.”

The waiter poured wine in everyone’s glass and then rewrapped the bottle in its towel as Olga Wohl took a folded newspaper from her purse, a large leather affair beside her chair, and handed it to Barbara Crowley. The story was on the front page, on the lower right-hand side, beside an old photograph of Peter Wohl. The caption line below the photograph said, simply, “P. Wohl.”

* * *

POLICE ORGANIZATION RESHUFFLED

By Cheryl Davies

Bulletin Staff Writer

Police Commissioner Taddeus Czernick today announced the formation of a new division, to be called Special Operations, within the Philadelphia Police Department. Although Czernick denied the reshuffling has anything to do with recent press criticism of some police operations, knowledgeable observers believe this to be the case.

Highway Patrol, the elite police unit sometimes known as “Carlucci’s Commandos,” which has been the subject of much recent criticism, has been placed under the new Special Operations Division, which will be commanded by Inspector Peter Wohl. Captain Michael J. Sabara, who had been in temporary command of the Highway Patrol since Captain Richard C. Moffitt was shot and killed, was named as Wohl’s deputy. Captain David J. Pekach, who had been assigned to t

he Narcotics Bureau, was named to command the Highway Patrol.

Inspector Wohl, who was previously assigned to the Special Investigations Division, and Pekach are little known outside the police department, but are regarded by insiders as “straight arrows,” officers who go by the book, lending further credence to the theory that the reorganization is intended to tame the Highway Patrol, and lessen press criticism of its alleged excesses. One Philadelphia newspaper recently editorialized that the Highway Patrol was acting like the Gestapo.

The new Special Operations Division will also have under its wing a special, federally funded, yet-to-be-formed unit called Anti-Crime Teams (ACT). According to Commissioner Czernick, specially trained and equipped ACT teams will be sent to high-crime areas in Philadelphia as needed to augment existing Police resources.

* * *

“That’s very nice,” Barbara said. Peter Wohl snorted derisively. “Congratulations, Peter.” Peter snorted again. “Am I missing something?” Barbara asked, confused. “What’s wrong with it?”

“I’m a Staff Inspector, for one thing,” Peter said. “Not an Inspector.”

“Well, so what? That’s a simple mistake. She didn’t know any better.”

“For another, there’s a pretty clear implication in there that Highway has been doing something wrong, and they haven’t, and that Mike Sabara, who is a really good cop, didn’t get Highway because he’s involved with what’s wrong with it.”

“Why didn’t he get it?”

“Because the mayor thinks he looks like a concentration camp guard,” Peter said.

“Really?” Barbara said.

“Really,” Peter said. “And I wasn’t sent over there to ‘tame’ Highway, either.”

“But Carlucci will be very pleased if you can keep the newspapers from calling it the Gestapo,” Chief Inspector August Wohl said.