HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The Hoboken Police Department's SWAT team has been disbanded, just days after officials learned of racy photos showing the unit's commander and other officers cavorting with waitresses from a Hooters restaurant in Alabama.

Images: SWAT Team Controversy

On the same day Hoboken's new public safety director was sworn in, he gave the city's police chief orders to disband the SWAT team and to order the lieutenant at the center of the controversy to desk duty.

After seeing the photos of Lt. Angelo Andriani and other members of the Hoboken police SWAT, newly appointed Public Safety Director Bill Bergin said he had to act decisively.

Bergin listed his reasons for disbanding the SWAT team in a phone interview with Newschannel 4's Pei-Sze Cheng: "The brazenness of the whole situation, because everything in the photographs, which I was shocked at, had Hoboken all over it, from the uniforms, to the police car, the bus that was involved."

Bergin ordered the police chief to disband the SWAT team and to have Andriani return from his extended vacation and assign him to desk duty immediately.

The photos were taken last year on a return trip from Louisiana, where the Hoboken officers helped with the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

They show the waitresses holding shotguns and other weapons belonging to officers under Andriani's command. Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were among the officers present.

City Councilman Ruben Ramos Jr. on Friday called for an investigation by the city into the conduct of the officers during the trip.

Andriani is currently at the center of a federal lawsuit against the city of Hoboken filed by five Hispanic officers who accused Andriani of being racist.

"What the police department has done is used the SWAT team as a tool to retaliate against our members," said Richard Rivera of the National Latino Peace Officers Association. "What they're trying to do is pit the officers against our members and blame them."

Bergin said his next move is to sit down with the police chief to discuss the Katrina trip.

"(I want to) sit down with him and see exactly what evidence is involved, and see what transpired with this as far as who gave them the finances to make this trip, and just basically the background on how valuable the trip was," Bergin said in the phone interview.