So in 2012, officials voted to completely disband the department -- it was beyond reform.
Misleading. Read on:
And in 2013, the Camden County Police Department officially began its tenure.
No, the city police was replaced by the County Police. And CNN will not admit that part of the reason was to save money.
Abolishing the police is government-sanctioned reparations.
The top 10 Murder Capitals of America, according to NeighborhoodScout, include:
#3 Camden, NJ
Remind me again, which party was running the city ?
1. The city was a dump for decades.
2. They couldn't afford a police department, so they began using New Jersey State Police to supplement the understaffed local police department.
3. The State Police have been the target of criticism for various incidents of alleged "racism" and "police brutality" across the entire state for years, so they had a very hands-off attitude when it came to policing in a dump like Camden.
4. Camden was forced to grow up and fix itself when Gov. Chris Christie decided to get the State Police the hell out of there.
Yeah, let’s make America like Camden.
Right on. The point made, but probably unwittingly, is that Camden wasn’t without a law enforcement agency after the disbanding. total abandonment is what the neo-abolitionists want for their cities. It’s nothing more than a crass power grab , since what they emplace as an alternative will be corrupted from the start by ideology. Which, as usual for banana republics, will lead to financial and other sorts of corruption.
Next CNN will report that MS13 is excepting BLM as members.
No shame in the media
Another thing CNN failed to mention is that the police force covering Camden went from 2/3 minority members to a larger force that was only 43% minority. So CNN, does that mean the solution to lowering crime in these hellholes like Camden is increasing the number of white officers? Because that is what happened in Camden!
I am not saying that is the solution, just pointing out the one-sidedness of the way fake-news CNN presents this.
by Michael Zielenziger, From the AARP Bulletin Print Edition, May 1, 2011 | Comments: 20
Vallejo, Calif. At 11 a.m. on a Friday morning, you'd be hard-pressed to file a police report or meet with a detective in this sprawling blue-collar city of 120,000. The city's sole police station is closed to the public three days a week, and its three substations are permanently shuttered.
Drug sales are on the rise and so is prostitution on Sonoma Boulevard, one of the town's main drags. Burglaries are commonplace. Amid a rising tide of unemployment — 12 percent — and a surge of foreclosed homes, squatters have taken hold even in upscale areas.
Obama’s Deficit Plan Sets Up a Battle With GOP on Medicare, Medicaid Cut. Read House Republicans Propose Remake of Medicare and Medicaid. Read If This Isn't a 'Rainy Day,' What Is? Read As the Deficit Grows, Services for Older Residents Shrink. Read Can You Close the Budget Deficit? Do
"Vallejo is just going to pot," says lifelong resident Marti Thornton, 54. "It once felt like the town was getting itself together, but now things are really getting worse."
"People who used to eat at Taco Bell now are robbing Taco Bell," says Nancy, a 69-year-old resident who didn't want her last name published.
Situated at the mouth of the Napa River about 25 miles north of San Francisco, Vallejo holds a prominent place in California history. It was the first state capital in 1852, and for nearly 150 years was the site of one of the nation's most important naval shipyards.
In 2008, it achieved a new kind of distinction — the state's largest city to file for bankruptcy.
FLASH FORWARD TO 2020
A decade after Vallejo, Calif. entered bankruptcy, the city appears to have turned a corner.
“Vallejo has done a ground-up restructuring,” said Karol Denniston, a partner with Squire Patton Boggs LLP. “They are now routinely one of the top 10 cities where people want to live, which is a huge turn-around from when they entered bankruptcy.”
Scars still remain from the Chapter 9 bankruptcy process. And many of the city's markers of success in 2018, as with the troubles that drove the city into bankruptcy court in 2008, stem from economic factors beyond its control.
Credit partly goes to the exorbitant real estate prices in San Francisco, where the median house sells for $1 million.
“We are benefiting from the fact that people would rather spend an hour riding the ferry to San Francisco then sitting in their car commuting,” said James Cooper, president and chief executive officer of the Vallejo Chamber of Commerce.
Prices have also jumped in communities like Oakland that once offered affordable alternatives, pushing buyers further out.
Vallejo, about 30 miles north of San Francisco, had a population of 118,280 as of June 2017, making it the tenth most populous city in the Bay Area, according to its 2017-18 comprehensive annual financial report.
Though Vallejo is dogged by a reputation for high unemployment and crime, as well as its historic bankruptcy, realtor.com named it the nation's hottest housing market in 2016.
The median listing price in Vallejo has grown to $420,000 in April 2018 from $290,000 in May 2015, according to realtor.com.
“Prices have probably grown by 25% in the starter home category in the last two years; and we have seen prices rising by 7% to 9% for the past several months,” said Johnny Walker, president of the Solano Association of Realtors.
Denniston credited city leaders for turning around the relationships with its police and fire employees, which were fractious heading into the bankruptcy.
“It looks like someone was able to improve those relationships,” Denniston said. “You have to bring the employees and the taxpayers along at the same time to reach a good consensus on financial goals.”
Vallejo filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on May 17, 2008, claiming it could no longer afford to pay wages and benefits promised to its employees.
"Vallejo was the first case in which a judge said I can allow the debtor to break or reject collective bargaining agreements," said Robert Christmas, a Nixon Peabody partner. "I think that set the tone in terms of making public service unions more willing to bargain."
The city exited Chapter 9 in August 2011.
They still have police. In fact, they have more police. And they have rehired most of the cops that they “defunded.”
This is a story about nothing.
And the county hired half of Camden’s police dept. back.
Some “little village” got rid of it’s police dept. because they couldn’t afford the $200k expense. Now they have a sheriff. Hmm, ok, so how large was the police dept.? Huh, maybe a deputy more than the one sheriff today? $200k doesn’t go very far with salaries, the building rent/utilities/up keep/cleaning, a couple jail cells, inmates’ 3 squares/cot/medical, office equipment, a couple of outfitted vehicles/gas/maintenance... What’s the budget with the one guy? Either there’s some funny bookkeeping going on or he’s working for free, providing his own weapon, uniform and vehicle and is officed in his mama’s basement.
Sounds like they simply dissolved the old police department - and re-hired the old officers for the new one.
I’m not against “community policing” at all. Its a form of devolved, local government and services that the Founders always had in mind.
The question to make sure is - the new police are truly from the community, the new police also enforce the laws fairly and aren’t merely a group controlled by political actors higher up. That would be disastrous.
Also be sure to take away their public union. That’s a big part of any government bureacracy corruption and inability to change.
ALSO - dissolve school districts and teachers unions too. Localize that as well!
“””This city disbanded its police department 7 years ago. Here’s what happened next””””
Another headline that does not match the story. Camden did not really disband. Camden merely replaced a bunch of corrupt cops with a new bunch of cops who may or may not be also corrupt.
But 356,000 people will not know whether there has been an improvement in Camden policing since that is the number of Camdenites who have left their fair city in the ensuing 7 years.
“How Cops Are Beating Crime in America’s Poorest City”
I didn’t see this in the CNN article.
Surveillance City
“Camden was wired to the gills with cameras and microphones. When a
gun is fired in the city, a system of microphones called ShotSpotter can
triangulate the signal and pinpoint the location of the shooter within several feet. Using their home computers, a team of citizen volunteers can direct the city’s many surveillance cameras to zone in on activity
that they deem suspicious.”
“As VICE reported, Metro captures the license plate numbers of every car entering Camden, and often sends threatening letters to the registered owners on the grounds that these visits could be drug-related
Smile you”re on candid camera.
Article dated in 2014
https://reason.com/2014/10/23/how-cops-are-beating-crime-in-americas-p/
It was not until Bill Clintoon and his community polocing program to add 100,000 police that evert little wide spot in the road got a new cop car and a cop to drive it. That was also when police began to militarize and train on weapons and tactics and almost none on community relations. About that tim every citizen became to be treated like one of the ten most wanted.
Not for all this riot crap but a blue light behind me strikes fear and I am a law abiding old white guy. Not everybody going 65 in a 55 zone is John Dillinger. In fact, hardly anyone is.
Yeah, they just replaced one police department with another.
When a city disbands their police dept. the county takes over. The Former chief worked for the mayor, the elected county sheriff not so much.
Sophistry, indeed. May be technically true that no place "of Camden's size" did it, but LOTS of places have done this – to save money.
Besides, this is NOT disbanding, dismantling, getting rid of the police. County cops do the same job.
Mount Kisco Renews Contract With Westchester [County] Police Department
I have come to believe that the intent is to drive all sane, normal people out of police work, leaving it to be done by the only ones willing to apply for the job-a new class of Muslims who will rule us with great fervor, and no civil rights whatsoever.
Decades ago Lynwood, Ca disbanded its PD because the officers were either corrupt or fearful of the residents and those coming in from surrounding cities, though the city council told a story of saving the city money. The PD was replaced with LA County Sheriffs. This is what will happen with the smaller cities that drop their police departments and it will result in less protection because the Sheriff departments or county police will not add the same number of officers to patrol as the cities lose.