Pennsylvania's top cop gets NFL security job

HARRISBURG - Nobody used to want a ticket from Col. Jeffrey B. Miller, the high-profile, 24-year veteran of the state police. Now everyone is hounding him for tickets - to NFL games.

The National Football League announced yesterday that it had given Miller, leader of the Pennsylvania State Police, the dream job of every cop who loves to Sunday-afternoon quarterback: He will become the league's director of strategic security.

Starting next month, Miller will police fan behavior, stadium security, even cheating by teams. Think of the New England Patriots' signal-stealing scandal.

As soon as word spread, requests for football tickets began pouring in.

"If I had a nickel for every person that has been trying to hit me up for tickets, I'd be a rich man. I wouldn't have to work anymore," Miller, 45, joked yesterday. ". . . And this just since this morning."

Miller, a Harrisburg native best known for his handling of the 2006 Amish schoolhouse shooting, said he had heard about the NFL's newly created job through a federal law enforcement friend. The friend told him that the league had some "employment opportunities," and that its officials were interested in talking to him.

"I thought it wouldn't hurt to talk to them, and so I did, and one thing led to another," said Miller, whom Gov. Rendell tapped in 2003 to lead the state police.

According to NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, Miller was one of 22 people interviewed for the job. The league, said Aiello, was impressed with his background, which includes a number of training courses with the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency.

Miller has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Elizabethtown College and a master's degree in public administration from Pennsylvania State University. He enlisted with the state police when he was 21.

The new job is related to the scandal that unfolded after the Patriots taped the New York Jets' defensive signals during the opening game last season. Patriots coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000, and the team was fined $250,000 and forfeited a first-round draft pick.

Part of the job description is to police the "use of electronic equipment by the league and clubs during games."

"I think it's safe to say that the league is obviously sensitive to any issue which could affect the integrity of the product that they put out on the field," Miller said. "Obviously, I wasn't in the room when they worked this all out, but it is a new security director position, and it's going to cross over a number of different areas."

"I'm excited at the opportunity," he added.

After the Amish schoolhouse shooting, which left five girls dead, Miller was widely praised for deftly balancing the public's - and reporters' - need for details against the community's desire for privacy.

He told the Patriot News of Harrisburg at the time that he had tried to release as many facts as he could about the gunman and the shooting in the hope that reporters would not go knocking on doors in a community already wary of outsiders and trying to deal with tragedy.

"It's still something I think about regularly," Miller, the father of two girls, said yesterday. "I think about the families. . . . I'll never forget that. It's probably one of the most impactful things I've ever experienced."

Also under Miller's supervision, state police investigators filed perjury charges against Poconos casino owner Louis A. DeNaples. DeNaples was charged with lying to state gaming investigators about alleged ties to organized crime in order to land a casino license. He has denied the charges.

"I will miss it," Miller said of his state police career. ". . . And I'm going to miss the people that I work with."

The Rendell administration has not decided who will replace Miller. Miller said he hoped it was someone who, like himself, had risen within the ranks.

"It's advantageous to first look within because we have the kind of talent that can do the job, and, number two, it's hard to learn the culture of an organization quickly," he said. "It's always good to have someone from within who has worked their way up and knows the people and can quickly take the reins and run with it."

Miller said he would focus on moving his family north for the NFL job in New York.

He would not say yesterday how much he would be paid, or even whether he would get more than his current $129,313 salary.

The NFL, too, was keeping that information private.

Pressed about the salary, Aiello, the league spokesman, would say only: "Less than Donovan McNabb's."