Camden County Police Department

Last updated
Camden County Police Department
AbbreviationCCPD
MottoService Before Self
Agency overview
FormedMay 1, 2013
Preceding agency
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionCamden, New Jersey, USA
Camden County New Jersey Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Camden Highlighted.svg
Foreground: Camden County, New Jersey, with the City of Camden highlighted.
Background: New Jersey, with Camden County highlighted.
Size11.4 square miles (30 km2)
Population77,344
Governing body Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders
General nature
Operational structure
Headquarters800 Federal St.
Camden, NJ 08103
Officers401
Ambassadors70-100
Agency executive
Facilities
Mobile observation platformsSky Patrol
Website
camdencountypd.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Camden County Police Department (CCPD) is a county police department providing law enforcement services to the city of Camden, Camden County, New Jersey, formed in 2013. It is the successor to the Camden Police Department. [1]

Contents

Then-chief Scott Thomson used the disbanding and replacement to transform the department's policies. Camden's new department has been called "a model" of how to reform police departments. [2] [3] [4] It is sometimes referred to as the Metro Division even though, unlike many other metropolitan police forces in the United States, it presently does not patrol outside of the city. As a "county police" force, the department is available to all municipalities in Camden County on a voluntary basis; however, no other municipalities within Camden County have announced plans to join the county police district. [5] [6]

Journalist Ryan Cooper described Camden's County Police as an example of community policing following the example of Nordic countries. [7]

Background

In January of 2011, the city department laid off 168 of the department's 370 officers when contract negotiations stalled and the city was facing a budget shortfall. Camden experienced a spike in homicides, and the city police department wanted to hire more patrol officers but couldn't afford to "partly because of generous union contracts." [8] [9] According to CNN the corruption had also "rendered the existing agency unfixable." [10] On August 2, 2011, the City of Camden and Camden County announced that the city police department would be disbanded in favor of a new county police force. [11] Well-known law enforcement executive John Timoney was retained to develop an organizational and functional plan for the department. [6]

The creation of the county police force in place of the city force was expected to save between $14 and $16 million annually out of the $60 million budget of the city police department. Unlike the city police department it replaced, the new "county" department was not initially unionized. Savings were expected to come from reducing the fringe benefits that had been required under the city's union contract. [12]

The move was endorsed by the Mayor of Camden, Dana Redd, who indicated that the new police department would be more cost-effective, [11] and that the high absentee rate of city officers had affected the former department's ability to keep the city safe. An official of the Camden Fraternal Order of Police, which represented city police officers, described the plan as "union busting" and called it "a recipe for disaster" that would replace experienced city officers with new personnel unfamiliar with the city. [13] [14] A community group known as the Citizens' Community Committee for Public Safety, along with the Camden Fraternal Order of Police, criticized the plan as being political, not practical. [15] The mayor's political opponents also criticized the disbandment of the city's department. [16]

Establishment of county department

In 2012, the entire city police department was laid off and required to apply for a position with the new county police department. [17] The application process included a 50-page form, psychological testing, and an interview process. [18] Many employees were angry. [17] Then-chief Scott Thomson saw it as a way to "hit the reset button" and completely change how policing worked in Camden; [17] [19] he characterized the city force at the time as "apathetic, lethargic and corrupt". [20] He envisioned transforming how Camden officers saw themselves from "Warrior" to "Guardian." [18] [21]

The new department took over primary responsibility for policing the City of Camden on May 1, 2013. [1] [22] 155 officers reapplied and were hired for the new department, while 65 officers refused to reapply. [1] [22] The new department reached its full complement of 401 sworn officers on June 7, 2013, when 92 recruits were commissioned. [23] The new force doubled the size of the previous city force. [8]

Thomson announced that officers would no longer be judged on how many tickets they wrote or arrests they made but on relationships they developed in the community and whether citizens felt safe enough to sit on their front steps or allow their children to ride their bikes in the street. [17] Thomson told the New York Times in 2017 that "aggressive ticket writing" was a sign that officers weren't understanding the new department, saying "handing a $250 ticket to someone who is making $13,000 a year can be life altering." [20] On new recruits' first day, they knock on doors in the neighborhood they're assigned to and introduce themselves. [10]

The initial strategy was to have as many officers walking and biking the streets as possible to discourage drug traffickers; as citizens felt safer and began occupying public spaces again, a critical mass of well-intentioned citizens was sufficient to keep the drug traffickers away and police pulled back on their presence. [17] Thomson also adopted new policies on use-of-force [8] and "scoop and go", which instructs officers to load injured people into their cruisers to take them to the hospital if calling for an ambulance would cause a delay. [20] The use-of-force policy, which the department had drafted with help from New York University Law School’s Policing Project and which was supported by the New Jersey ACLU and the Fraternal Order of Police, was called by experts the "most progressive" such policy to date, according to the Washington Post in 2019. [24]

As part of the overall strategy for the city, abandoned buildings being used as drug houses were torn down. [17] On October 1, 2013, the results of a vote by County Police officers to unionize were announced. By a margin of two votes, the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police (NJFOP) was selected to represent the officers. The previous month, superior officers voted to be represented by the NJFOP. [25] After the implementations both complaints of excessive force and violent crimes decreased. [17] In 2019 Bloomberg reported that excessive force complaints had dropped by 95%. [8] In 2020 CNN reported the violent crime rate had dropped by 42%. [10]

Sky Patrol

In June 2013, the department deployed a mobile observation platform called "Sky Patrol," which contains surveillance cameras and thermal imaging cameras and can be elevated 35 feet (11 m) into the air to help monitor crime. It was procured with $135,000 in forfeited funds. The maker of the system, FLIR Systems, claims that it can enable a single officer to see more than three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) and oversee an area that would normally require five officers. A spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor acknowledged that the system could see into homes. [26] Criminal lawyers and civil libertarians have raised concerns that use of the system may conflict with citizens' expectation of privacy. [27]

Ambassadors

On June 20, 2013, the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders approved the addition of a private force of civilian ambassadors to provide a security presence and serve as the eyes and ears of the police department in Camden's downtown shopping district. A contract was entered with the private security firm AlliedBarton to provide 70 to 100 ambassadors when state funds become available. [28]

Crime in Camden

Urban decay in Camden. Camden NJ poverty.jpg
Urban decay in Camden.

For many years, Camden had one of the highest homicide rates in the nation. However, crime in Camden has fallen considerably since 2012. [29]

In 2004, 2005, and 2009, Camden was ranked America's "most dangerous city" by CQ Press, which ranks cities based on reported murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft data. [30]

In 2008, Camden had 2,333 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, compared to the national rate of 455. [30]

On October 29, 2012, the FBI announced Camden was ranked first in violent crime per capita of cities with over 50,000 residents, surpassing Flint, Michigan. [31] That year, there were 67 homicides in Camden.

By 2019, homicides had declined to 25, a 63% decrease. This coincided with wide-ranging reforms by the new police department. [8]

By 2022, overall crime rates had declined even further still, although the murder rate had increased slightly, to its 2016 levels, after falling in both 2020 and 2021, as the city (and country more generally) reopened following the height of both the COVID-19 pandemic, and persistent tensions surrounding the 2020 presidential election; the overall count of non-violent crimes committed within city limits also returned to its 2019 levels by the end of 2022, somewhat offsetting the continued drop in violent crime in the city generally under its new police force that kept overall crime rates near 50-year lows. [32] [33] [34]

Misconduct

On October 28, 2014, Officer Ashley Bailey was fired and arrested on corruption charges involving a $1.2 million illegal drug ring. [35] She was sentenced in January 2018 to eight years in the state prison with no chance of parole earlier than five years. [36]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camden, New Jersey</span> City in Camden County, New Jersey, United States

Camden is a city in and the county seat of Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Camden is part of the Delaware Valley and is located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city. At the 2020 United States census, Camden was the 14th-most populous municipality in the state, with a population of 71,791, a decrease of 5,553 (−7.2%) from the 2010 census count of 77,344, when it had been ranked 12th in the state by population, which in turn reflected a decline of 1,984 (-2.5%) from the 79,318 counted in the 2000 census. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the population was 70,996 in 2022, making it the 528th-most-populous in the country. The city was incorporated on February 13, 1828. Camden has been the county seat of Camden County since the county was formed on March 13, 1844. The city derives its name from Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. Camden is made up of over 20 neighborhoods. The city is part of the South Jersey region of the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Canada</span> Overview of crime in Canada

Crime in Canada is generally considered low overall. Under the Canadian constitution, the power to establish criminal law and rules of investigation is vested in the federal Parliament. The provinces share responsibility for law enforcement, and while the power to prosecute criminal offences is assigned to the federal government, responsibility for prosecutions is delegated to the provinces for most types of criminal offences. Laws and sentencing guidelines are uniform throughout the country, but provinces vary in their level of enforcement.

Crime in Washington, D.C., is directly related to the city's demographics, geography, and unique criminal justice system. The District's population reached a peak of 802,178 in 1950. Shortly after that, the city began losing residents, and by 1980 Washington had lost one-quarter of its population. The population loss to the suburbs also created a new demographic pattern, which divided affluent neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park from the less well-off neighborhoods to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacksonville Sheriff's Office</span> Joint city-county law enforcement agency

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO) is a joint city-county law enforcement agency, which has primary responsibility for law enforcement, investigation, and corrections within the consolidated City of Jacksonville and Duval County, Florida, United States. Duval County includes the incorporated cities of Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Baldwin, Jacksonville Beach, and Neptune Beach; the beach cities have their own police departments as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Mexico</span> Overview of crime in Mexico

Crime is one of the most urgent concerns facing Mexico, as Mexican drug trafficking rings play a major role in the flow of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and marijuana transiting between Latin America and the United States. Drug trafficking has led to corruption, which has had a deleterious effect on Mexico's Federal Representative Republic. Drug trafficking and organized crime have been a major source of violent crime. Drug cartels and gangs have also branched out to conduct alternative illegal activities for profit, including sex trafficking in Mexico. Some of the most increasingly violent states in Mexico in 2020 included Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Michoacán, Jalisco, and Querétaro. Some of the world's most violent cities are reportedly within the state of Guanajuato with extortion from criminal groups now being commonplace. The state of Zacatecas is said to be valuable to multiple organized crime groups for drug trafficking, specifically methamphetamine to the United States. As of 2021, Michoacán is experiencing increased instances of extortion and kidnapping due to a growing presence and escalation in the armed conflicts between CJNG and Cárteles Unidos on regions bordering the neighboring state of Jalisco. CJNG is also currently battling the Los Chapitos faction of the Sinaloa Cartel in the North Mexican region of Sonora.

Crime in St. Louis includes an overview of crime both in the city of St. Louis and in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. Crime in the city increased from the 1960s through the early 1990s as measured by the index crime rate, followed by a decline in crime rates through 2014. Despite decreasing crime, rates of violent crime and property crime in both the city and the metropolitan area remain higher than the national metropolitan area average. In addition, the city of St. Louis consistently has been ranked among the most dangerous cities in the United States. As of April 2017, St. Louis has the highest murder rate in America. At the end of 2017, St. Louis metropolitan had 205 murders, 159 of which were within the city limits. In 2018, the new Chief of Police, John Hayden said two-thirds (67%) of all the murders and one-half of all the assaults are concentrated in a triangular area in the north part of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisville Metro Police Department</span>

The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) began operations on January 6, 2003, as part of the creation of the consolidated city-county government in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It was formed by the merger of the Jefferson County Police Department and the Louisville Division of Police. The Louisville Metro Police Department has been headed by Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel since January 2, 2023. LMPD divides Jefferson County into eight patrol divisions and operates a number of special investigative and support units. The LMPD is currently negotiating a consent decree with the United States Department of Justice subsequent to an investigation that determined that they have engaged in a decades long pattern of civil rights abuses.

As of 2018, Detroit had the fourth highest murder rate among major cities in the United States after St. Louis and Baltimore and the 42nd highest murder rate in the world. The rate of robberies in Detroit declined by 67% between 1985 and 2014 while the rate of aggravated assaults increased. As a whole, the city's crime rate has decreased considerably from its 1980s peak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegheny County Police Department</span> County police department in Pennsylvania, U.S.

The Allegheny County Police Department is a law enforcement agency in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The department provides law enforcement services on County property, including the Pittsburgh International Airport, the Allegheny County Airport, and various parks. Between 2017 and 2021, the ACPD was contracted by the borough of Wilmerding. It also provides assistance to all municipal law enforcement agencies in the County, and generally investigates all serious crimes, such as homicide, except in the City of Pittsburgh.

Crime in Chicago has been tracked by the Chicago Police Department's Bureau of Records since the beginning of the 20th century. The city's overall crime rate, especially the violent crime rate, is higher than the US average. Gangs in Chicago have a role in the city's crime rate. The number of homicides in Chicago hit a 25-year high in 2021.

Crime in Los Angeles has varied throughout time, reaching peaks between the 1970s and 1990s. Since the early 2020s, crime has increased in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Brazil</span> National crime information on Brazil

Crime in Brazil involves an elevated incidence of violent and non-violent crimes. Brazil's homicide rate was 27.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Brazil has the highest number of intentional homicides in the world, with 57,358 in 2018, or possibly second to Nigeria, which lacks accurate data but was estimated at 64,201 in 2016. In recent years, the homicide rate in Brazil has begun to decline. The homicide rate was 20.64 per 100,000 in 2020 with 43,879 killings, similar to 2019, but down from 30.67 per 100,000 in 2017.

The Camden Police Department (CPD) was the primary civilian law enforcement agency in Camden, New Jersey, until it was dissolved on May 1, 2013, when the Camden County Police Department Metro Division took over full responsibility for policing the city of Camden.

Crime in Atlanta, Georgia is above the national median and has been a major problem for the city since the middle 20th century.

Crime in Oakland, California, began to rise during the late 1960s, and by the end of the 1970s Oakland's per capita murder rate had risen to twice that of San Francisco or New York City. In 1983, the National Journal referred to Oakland as the "1983 crime capital" of the San Francisco Bay Area. Crime continued to escalate during the 1980s and 1990s, and during the first decade of the 21st century Oakland has consistently been listed as one of the most dangerous large cities in the United States.

Whitman Park is a neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey. Located north of Woodlynne, Whitman Park has a population of 6,574.

The American city of Baltimore, Maryland, is notorious for its crime rate, which ranks well above the national average. Violent crime spiked in 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015, which touched off riots and an increase in murders. The city recorded 348 homicides in 2019, a number second only to the number recorded in 1993 when the population was nearly 125,000 higher.

The Ferguson effect is an increase in violent crime rates in a community caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police. The Ferguson effect was first proposed after police saw an increase in violence following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The term was coined by Doyle Sam Dotson III, the chief of the St. Louis police, to account for an increased murder rate in some U.S. cities following the Ferguson unrest. Whether the Ferguson effect really exists is subject of discussions with many published studies reporting contradicting findings concerning whether there is a change in crime rates, number of 911 calls, homicides, and proactive policing. Furthermore, the effect and influence of the portrayal of police brutality in the media is also contested.

Crime in Flint, Michigan, has been a serious issue for more than a decade. Since the late-2000s, Flint has consistently ranked among the most violent cities in the United States. Law enforcement in Flint is primarily the responsibility of the Flint Police Department, which is often assisted by the Genesee County Sheriff's Department and the Michigan State Police, which maintains a post in adjacent Flint Township that serves all of Genesee County, as well as the Genesee County Parks and Recreation Commission Police and the campus police departments of the University of Michigan–Flint, Kettering University, and Mott Community College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Minneapolis Question 2</span> Political movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota

The police abolition movement gained momentum in the U.S. city of Minneapolis during protests of the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and culminated in the failed Question 2 ballot measure in 2021 to replace the city's police department with a public safety department. The measure would have removed minimum staffing levels for sworn officers, renamed the Minneapolis Police Department as the Minneapolis Department of Public Safety, and shifted oversight of the new agency from the mayor's office to the city council. It required the support of 51 percent of voters in order to pass. In the Minneapolis municipal election held on November 2, 2021, the measure failed with 43.8 percent voting for it and 56.2 percent voting against it.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mast, George (April 28, 2013). "Holdouts lament police transition" part 1. Courier-Post .
  2. ↑ "Camden's Community Policing Model Being Praised Amid Public Outcry in Other Places". NBC10 Philadelphia. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  3. ↑ "Bramnick suggests nation follow Camden model of community policing". Insider NJ. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  4. ↑ Cuellar, Dann (2020-06-09). "Camden County police seen as model for law enforcement evolution". 6abc Philadelphia. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  5. ↑ Laday, Jason (July 23, 2013). "Camden County towns to study possible merger of police departments". South Jersey Times .
  6. 1 2 Camden County Police Department (official website). Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  7. ↑ Ryan Cooper (5 June 2020). "What America can learn from Nordic police". The Week . ISSN   1533-8304. Wikidata   Q98399911..
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Holder, Sarah (4 June 2020). "The City That Remade Its Police Department". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  9. ↑ Rahman, Khaleda (8 June 2020). "Minneapolis Is Not the First City to Disband Its Police Department—the Lessons Learned From Camden, New Jersey". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 Andrew, Scottie (9 June 2020). "This city disbanded its police department 7 years ago. Here's what happened next". CNN. Archived from the original on 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  11. 1 2 Baxter, Christopher; Megerian, Chris (August 2, 2011). "Camden County to form regional police department". The Star-Ledger .
  12. ↑ "Chris Christie Pushes Camden Police Force To Disband, Despite Questions Over New Plan's Finances". Huffington Post. November 19, 2012.
  13. ↑ Chiaramonte, Perry (August 26, 2012). "Gritty N.J. city of Camden to scrap police department amid budget woes". FoxNews.com.
  14. ↑ Bernstein, Jenn; Madden, David (August 8, 2012). "Camden Mayor's Decision To Dismantle City's Police Force Stirs Up Controversy". KYW-TV.
  15. ↑ "Groups against Camden County Police Department to hold community meetings". Philly.com. March 7, 2012.
  16. ↑ Vargas, Claudia (April 30, 2013). "In Camden, challengers slam police and school takeovers". The Philadelphia Inquirer .
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Camden's Turn: A Story of Police Reform in Progress | Not in Our Town". www.niot.org. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  18. 1 2 "Former Chief Of Reformed Camden, N.J., Force: Police Need 'Consent Of The People'". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  19. ↑ "New Police Force From Scratch: N.J. City Proves It's Possible To Reform The Police". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  20. 1 2 3 Goldstein, Joseph (2017-04-02). "Changes in Policing Take Hold in One of the Nation's Most Dangerous Cities". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  21. ↑ "'Guardians Not Warriors': How Crime Fell When New Jersey City Dismantled Police Dept". 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  22. 1 2 Mast, George (2013-04-28). "Holdouts Lament part 2". Courier-Post. pp. A13. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  23. ↑ McNeil, Andy (June 8, 2013). "Camden County police reach goal" (subscription required). Courier-Post .
  24. ↑ Paul, Deanna (21 August 2019). "'Police must first do no harm': How one of the nation's roughest cities is reshaping use-of-force tactics". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  25. ↑ McNeil, Andy. "Camden County Police unionize in close vote, Members join state FOP", Courier-Post , October 3, 2013.
  26. ↑ Charnet, Julie (June 4, 2013). "Police unveil 'Sky Patrol' post to monitor high-crime areas in Camden" (subscription required). Courier-Post .
  27. ↑ Charnet, Julie (June 15, 2013). "Camden's Sky Patrol elicits privacy concerns" (subscription required). Courier-Post .
  28. ↑ Walsh, Jim (June 20, 2013). "Private force of civilians will serve as eyes and ears in Camden". Courier-Post .
  29. ↑ Holder, Sarah. "What Happened to Crime in Camden?". CityLab. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  30. 1 2 Hirsch, Deborah (November 24, 2009). "Report ranks Camden most dangerous U.S. city". Courier-Post .
  31. ↑ Harris, David (October 29, 2012). "Flint drops title of most violent in nation, according to expanded FBI stats". MLive.com.
  32. ↑ "Camden sees lowest crime level in more than 50 years". WHYY. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  33. ↑ "Camden continues a trend of low crime, though the numbers for last year are flat". WHYY. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  34. ↑ "CCPD: Total Violent Crime Down in 2022; Motor Vehicle Crime Up Sharply". TAPinto. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  35. ↑ "Major Drug Ring in South Jersey Busted; One Suspect is a Camden County Police Officer". gloucestercitynews.net. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  36. ↑ Walsh, Jim. "Drug probe brings jail for former cop, relative". Courier-Post. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.