November 2002 Volume 83 Number 11 "serving the protectors"
Police Federation of Australia donates to September 11 appeal
By John Ballantyne

New York detective and paramedic Jeffrey Vlack remembers the events of September 11, 2001, as though they were only yesterday.

That day he was one of the many police and emergency workers who risked their lives attempting to rescue victims from the World Trade Center disaster.

In June this year, Vlack was in Australia to receive a donation of funds raised by the Police Federation of Australia (PFA) for spouses and children of those police killed on September 11.

The PFA raised a total of $128,733 – of which more than $22,000 came from the Police Association of South Australia.

PFA president, Peter Alexander, and the PFA CEO, Mark Burgess, presented Vlack with the donation cheque during this year’s Western Australia Police Union annual conference, where Vlack was a special guest.

Mr Alexander, on behalf of the PFA’s 43,000 members across Australia, spoke of the high regard in which Australian police held their New York counterparts.

On September 11, hundreds of New York police and emergency service workers died in the line of duty. Of those killed 65 were police (37 from the Port Authority, and 28 from the New York Patrolmen and Detectives).

At the WA Police Union annual conference in June this year: special guest of honour, New York detective Jeffrey Vlack, with Police Federation of Australia CEO, Mark Burgess, and PFA president, Peter Alexander.

The money raised by the PFA has gone to the Port Authority Police World Trade Center Disaster Survivors’ Fund and the New York City Patrolmen Benevolent Association’s Widow and Children’s Fund.

At the WA conference this year, Vlack enthralled his audience of police union delegates as he gave a first-hand account of the perilous rescue work undertaken at Ground Zero.

Jeff Vlack, a third-generation police officer, has been a detective with the New York City Police Department for 17 years.

He is also an official with the Detectives’ Endowment Association (DEA), a labour union which represents 7,500 serving New York Police Department detectives.

It was at 9:30am on September 11, 2001, while he was attending a union delegates’ meeting in Queens, that he first heard of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

“Everybody in the meeting had beepers,” he recalls, “and suddenly they simultaneously started beeping, but they didn’t stop.

“The first message was ‘explosion at World Trade Center’, and then the next one read ‘small plane has hit’.”

Vlack went from Queens to Brooklyn, then to Ground Zero.

Movement and transport were extremely difficult in the confusion following the attack. At one stage Vlack had to hotwire a boat, which was moored in the harbour, to get to the site.

As he made his way across the waterway, he saw thick smoke from the stricken Twin Towers filling the skies above New York City.

Detective Vlack’s special qualifications as an ER (emergency-room) paramedic were put to the ultimate test that day as he toiled amidst the dust and debris of the World Trade Center to rescue survivors.

The Police Federation of Australia, in addition to donating money to assist families of police victims, also honoured those killed by having a special wreath laid at the New York City Police Memorial on the first anniversary of the attack on America.

Present for the New York wreath-laying ceremony on September 11 were Detective Jeff Vlack and SA Police Minister, Patrick Conlon.

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