90 days on job, airport security boss quits

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 1/30/25

“By any and all measures he seemed to be pleased with his job,” Rhode Island Airport Corporation spokesman Bill Fischer said soon after Joseph Perkins abruptly quit his job Tuesday as …

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90 days on job, airport security boss quits

Posted

“By any and all measures he seemed to be pleased with his job,” Rhode Island Airport Corporation spokesman Bill Fischer said soon after Joseph Perkins abruptly quit his job Tuesday as director of airport security.

Perkins, who took the job to run the 27-member airport police force in September, was undergoing certification to be chief. He did not notify superiors of his decision to leave the job, but according to a WPRI story sent a message to his colleagues that airport management was seeking to eliminate the department. He tendered his resignation to State Police Col. Darnell Weaver.

Fischer said Perkins was present at a department directors’ meeting Tuesday morning and apparently went from there to the state police.

“I think we’re all surprised,” Fischer said.

“We have no resignation letter from him or explanation for his decision. There are no plans to eliminate the RIAC police department and the department is properly staffed and able to fulfill its mission. We have had the same staffing levels over the last decade. The department has been and will continue to be led by Senior Vice President of Operations Duc Nguyen,” reads a statement Fischer released.

But Perkins had issues with RIAC operations.

‘“Unfortunately everything you suspect about RIAC management is true,” Perkins wrote in the message, claiming management wanted to get rid of the police department and “most of all the union,”’ WPRI reported.

Perkins offered an explanation in a statement he released to the Warwick Beacon yesterday morning.

“I came from out of state. I knew no one in the state prior to accepting the job and certainly no one at the airport. After 90 days on the job, I quickly surmised that remaining employed at the airport under the current administrative leadership was something I would not do,“ he wrote.

He continued, “Unlike most professions, law-enforcement decisions and actions have serious consequences. Walking away and not notifying someone of the issues I observed during my time there is not something my conscience or my professional character and oath would allow. The issues that concerned me are not issues that need to be shared in the media. Based on my experience as a law enforcement professional for over 35 years, I knew the correct way to handle the issues that concerned me – report them to the highest ranking police officer in the state, Colonel Darnell Weaver.

Allegations that RIAC President and CEO Iftikhar aims to drive out the union and replace personnel with contracted services date back to last spring, when the Local 2873 of RI Council 94 AFSCM in a near-unanimous vote turned down a contract. The bone of contention was over language that would have given RIAC the authority to change job designations without the recourse of a hearing or an appeal. A contract has yet to be resolved.

Also last spring, state and local officials as well as news media outlets, the airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration received anonymous letters that there would be a walkout of RIAC staff on Aug. 13 unless the governor made a change in RIAC management. The letters cited the large number of high-ranking personnel who have left the agency since Ahmad was named to the post nine years ago, and also a toxic work environment.

The airport did not close, nor was there a walkout of personnel. At the FAA’s insistence, RIAC contracted an outside fire protection service, as the airport would have been forced to close had fire personnel not shown up.

Citing the cost of those services, which were not used, and the black eye the anonymous letters gave the airport, the RIAC board approved Ahmad’s request to hunt down the author(s) of the letters and to bring suit. Fischer said Tuesday that investigation is active and ongoing.

Perkins has 35 years of law enforcement experience. He served as chief of the Middleboro Police Department in Massachusetts for 10 years before accepting the job at RIAC.   

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