The statements about Camden are a bit disingenuous. Yes, their crime did decrease. But only slightly more so than the average as crime has been decreasing overall. Calling it a replacement is a bit inaccurate. They rehired a lot of the previous officers, at lower pay. I'm not a big fan of police myself. I dont think the answer is disbanding or defunding them though. I think increasing funding, hiring requirements, and education would lead to better results.
Some interesting info here:
Camden has witnessed a significant reduction in both overall and violent crime between 2013 when the CCPD came on the beat, and 2019. A CCPD-provided crime report shows that during this period, Camden experienced a 38 percent drop in overall crime and a 40 percent drop in violent crime. Between 2013 and 2018, New Jersey experienced a 25 percent reduction in overall crime and a 27 percent drop in violent crime. Camden experienced a 32 percent reduction in overall crime and 35 percent drop in violent crime.
Newark experienced a 45 percent reduction in both overall crime and violent crime during this period. Interestingly, there has been no such clamoring for police across the nation to emulate the Newark Police Department. So too, Paterson and Jersey City each experienced declines in violent crime within 4 percent of Camden’s, albeit with smaller reductions in overall crime.
Between 2000 and 2018, New Jersey experienced a 48 percent reduction in overall crime and a 44 percent reduction in violent crime. Camden’s overall crime rate fell by 43 percent and its violent crime rate by only 22 percent. That is, it lagged behind the rest of the state’s improvements, particularly regarding violent crime. It also lagged behind several of its peers. Newark, Jersey City, and Trenton all experienced greater reductions than Camden in both overall and violent crime during this period.
In 2012, facing spiraling crime rates and fiscal strains stemming in part from its unionized police force, Camden dissolved its force to replace it with a then-nonunionized county police force that, as described in a 2014 Governing exposè, “rehired most of the laid-off cops, along with nearly 100 other officers, but at much lower salaries and with fewer benefits than they had received from the city.” Camden’s “disbanding” can really be thought of as a technical transition from a city to a county police department.
Camden neither disbanded its police force, nor did it defund it. On the contrary, as Camden County Police Chief Joe Wysocki recently told Tapinto Camden: “As far as the change that has taken place, the number one difference is resources.”
Indeed, the Camden County Police Department (CCPD) has received ample resources, including tens of millions of dollars per year. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, from the time the CCPD emerged, it received substantially more funds than originally budgeted. Its budget has only grown, today costing more than $68 million per year. By contrast, Paterson, another high-crime New Jersey city with a population nearly double Camden’s, estimates its annual police budget at $45 million.
Camden has used the funding not just to beef up the police force, but to equip it with sophisticated crime-fighting technology. As Matt Taibbi detailed in a December 2013 feature for Rolling Stone, Camden installed a massive surveillance apparatus, replete with more than 100 high-tech cameras covering the entire city, a mobile 30-foot patrol crane, dozens of microphones for identifying gunshot locations to within a few meters and pointing cameras to escape routes, and “Minority Report-style” scanners for reading license plates and generating warnings. Even civilians work as crime analysts to “patrol” the city virtually and direct uniformed officers from a robust command center.
In short, Camden today has more police — including many of its original officers — who operate using pervasive surveillance equipment likely to give civil libertarians pause. Moreover, presumably contrary to the desires of the defunders, the force consists of a significantly smaller percentage of minority police than did its predecessor.
I was aware that Camden’s new police force had some rehires, but I was not under the impression it was any significant amount. I also didn’t come across anything that pointed out the decrease in crime in the state overall, so thank you for that. The main point I’m trying to make is that Camden dissolving their original police force was not the cure-all that people think it was. That there were outside factors that largely contributed to crime rates being brought down in the city and members of the community feeling better about the new police department.
The conclusion that I draw from all this is American policing needs to be thrown out into the dumpster fire it came from because it isn’t working in the ways that we need it to. I’m not going to die on that hill If I am wrong and lasting police reform IS possible, but based on the disappointing evidence from the research I mentioned earlier I have little hope for the idea that police reform can bring about the social stability in our communities that people so desperately need.
I agree for the most part. I just don't agree with throwing everything out of the window. We definitely need more accountability. And I think stricter hiring requirements and higher pay to attract higher quality people would help. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be a cop and deal with all the crap they do for the small amount they make. Cops get a lot of shit. But, they deal with A LOT too. And they're only human. It affects them too. My dad is actually a retired officer actually. Where he worked wasn't the nicest area in the world. But, definitely not the worst either. And I've heard tons of nightmare stories. I'm sure it takes its toll on their mental health.
A lot of it is deeper than the police too. Like the war on drugs is an obvious example. It's done nothing but ruin lives and cost tax payers tons of money. For nothing.