Not even NYPD headquarters is safe from crime.
A man from Portugal snuck under a garage gate at heavily-guarded One Police Plaza last week – making his way upstairs to the supposedly secure, second-floor Joint Operations Center and then onto the roof, The Post has learned.
Jose Luis Soares, 65, crept into the building by making it past several security checkpoints staffed by uniformed, armed police officers on Oct. 28, court documents show.
The building has two garage entrances that are accessible from the street.
Both are protected by cops in a gatehouse.
It wasn’t clear which one Soares entered.
Once inside, he was able to enter a “personnel only” door and make it to a second-floor roof of the 14-story building, the complaint states.
Soares’ first stop was the second-floor Joint Operations Center, where cops watch surveillance cameras from across the city, law enforcement sources said.
The JOC usually requires a separate level of security to enter and includes an operations center, a situation room, a data center, and the police commissioner’s conference room.
There are dozens of computer consoles surrounded by large television screens hanging from above.
“It’s supposed to be one of the most secure buildings in the city,” one dismayed Manhattan cop said. “It just goes to show you the incompetence of some of the people we’re hiring. What a breach.”
Soares, who is not a U.S. citizen, was charged with two counts of criminal trespassing and ordered to complete an alternative sentencing program by Jan. 8, 2024, officials said.
His immigration status wasn’t known.
It is unclear why he did it.
The NYPD requires anyone entering the building in Lower Manhattan to show an official building pass or get cleared through a “visitors entrance” equipped with metal detectors.
The building suffered a security breach in April, when ex-cop Michael Dowd, one of the most corrupt officers in NYPD history, brazenly walked in and commemorated the visit on Instagram.
