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Two U.S. Cities Dismantled Their Police Departments. You Won't Believe What Happened Next...
PJ Media ^ | 06/10/2020 | Bryan Preston

Posted on 06/10/2020 5:59:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The fringe left, to include adviser to Joe Biden Rep. AOC, is emboldened and fixed on the notion that defunding police or at least dismantling their agencies and starting over is going to fix everything. The idea seems to have sprung up out of nothing and purely as an overreaction to the tragic police killing of George Floyd. But it didn’t. Two U.S. cities, both on the east coast, have taken some form of this approach to reforming their police departments. For a variety of reasons, the two cities have not experienced the same outcome.

First, Camden, New Jersey. Despite a national downward trend in violent crime, Camden saw violence spiking. Excessive force complaints against police officers were also on the rise. NPR, which should be defunded, reports that Camden dissolved its police force and started over. And it seems to have worked.

Camden, N.J., took its own big step in 2013. The city was in a public safety crisis, with murder rates 18 times the national average and scores of excessive-force complaints, when the mayor and City Council dissolved the existing police department and created a countywide force in its place.

A majority of the police were rehired, but each had to complete a 50-page application, retake psychological testing and go through an interview process, former police Chief Scott Thomson said. He led the county police from 2013 to 2019 and the city’s force before then.

The department instituted other changes, including putting more officers on the street on a regular basis, getting to know the community and changing the way an officer’s performance was measured — not by the number of arrests or tickets issued, but other outcomes.

(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: baltimore; camden; crime; police

1 posted on 06/10/2020 5:59:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Camden dissolved their city police and brought in county police - a much large force - some improvement but still high crime city.

The other ‘city’ had 250 residents and could not afford its own police so they too used the county police - no crime area and still no crime area

These are ‘fool ya’ news pieces; they are true initially, but the actual truth lies in the details.


2 posted on 06/10/2020 6:06:30 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turnWhen is the next election and can any republican stan)
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To: SeekAndFind

Murder rates and shootings in LA, Chicago and New York City (especially Brooklyn and the Bronx) are increasing greatly in the past three weeks. Almost all go unpunished. The police are not stupid or suicidal. They are simply not going into minority communities to investigate or arrest. Some of the killings are revenge killings of people who have murdered or stole. Uniformed cops don’t even wish to accompany the medical examiners or coroners to collect the bodies. This is de facto “defunding the police”. These communities will live with lawlessness, thug rule and vigilantism. Depopulation and economic ruin follows.


3 posted on 06/10/2020 6:13:26 AM PDT by allendale
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To: SeekAndFind

NPR, which should be defunded

****************

It could have been — many times. But the Republicans failed/refused to do it. They will NEVER defund this leftist propaganda outlet.

We really do need a new party that actually stands for something. The GOP is worthless.


4 posted on 06/10/2020 6:18:49 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Starboard

I call them the GOP Wing of the Democratic Party.


5 posted on 06/10/2020 6:20:47 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: SeekAndFind

They just replaced the city police with county police is all.


6 posted on 06/10/2020 6:28:26 AM PDT by Principled (No one will conquer America, from within or without, until its citizenry are disarmed.)
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To: PIF

Camden is tiny. The resulting police coverage increased by 60 percent.


7 posted on 06/10/2020 6:33:24 AM PDT by jimfree (My19 y/o granddaughter continues to have more quality exec experience than an 8 year Obama.)
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To: dfwgator

We have the party of Big Government and the party of Even Bigger Government.


8 posted on 06/10/2020 7:51:07 AM PDT by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: Principled
They just replaced the city police with county police is all.

And the County Police Department hired back .66% of the City of Camden police force which effectively doubled the number of LEO on the street. Also, while there was corruption in the City police force (the entire City government was corrupt), that was not the main reason for "disbanding" the police force; rather, the City could no longer afford the contract with the police union, with all its goodies, including featherbedding which resulted in more cops sitting behind desks than making arrests on the streets. The only realistic way to get rid of the union contract was to get rid of the union and the only way to get rid of the union was to get rid of the police department. The City, however, could not simply replace the old police department with a new police department, because that would have been an unfair labor practice. Hence, the State jumped in to create a new police force at the county level. And while the Camden County Police Force unionized within a year of being formed, they opted for a difference union representative, who took a more pragmatic approach to negotiating the new contract.

9 posted on 06/10/2020 8:15:08 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
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To: SeekAndFind

Both cities are more like Somalia or Zimbabwe than American. Camden population peaked in 1950 and has steadily declined to what the population near 1900 levels.


10 posted on 06/10/2020 8:52:53 AM PDT by NTHockey (My rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: Labyrinthos

thanks Labyrinthos - good info


11 posted on 06/10/2020 10:54:36 AM PDT by Principled (No one will conquer America, from within or without, until its citizenry are disarmed.)
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To: NTHockey

They claimed that Camden has improved substantially. But if you make a wrong turn there after dark, you’re still in trouble!


12 posted on 06/10/2020 1:56:16 PM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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