Camden to disband police force

August 26, 2012

2–3 minutes

Gritty N.J. city of Camden to scrap police department amid budget woes:

For most of 2011, I wrote a lot about the crime-infested cesspool on the Delaware River known as Camden, New Jersey. If you don’t know by my recollection Camden has been the number 1 or 2 most dangerous in the city since at least 2004. I wrote about it a lot last year since I spent most of 2011 not only in New Jersey on a family matter but I was but a stone’s throw from Camden. I haven’t written about it at all this year since I’m back in North Carolina and we don’t get much news from New Jersey down here. However, this morsel of information happened to make the national news.

It seems that the fair city of Camden was satisfied with just laying off half of its police force. Now they’re considering plans to disband the police department as a whole. Now that doesn’t mean there won’t be a police presence in Camden. It means that it will be replaced by a Metro Police division of the Camden County Police Department. That means that cities and towns from all over Camden County like Berlin, Clementon, Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Atco, etc. will have their tax money used to patrol Camden. Not surprising since over half of the properties in Camden are non-tax producing properties. Not to mention that where will these police officers be going. Not to any of the places I mentioned but probably mostly to Camden.

The Camden cops that will soon be out of jobs or have new non-union jobs on the Metro force are decrying that this is nothing more than union busting but when a city has no money it can’t pay its employees whether or not they’re union. However, that makes me wonder how much Camden Mayor Dana Redd is being paid by the city.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The only thing that would have half a chance of curbing crime in Camden at this point would be martial law and I’m not saying that for hyperbole. Camden is a cancer that could spread throughout the rest of the county where good people live if it is left unchecked. Short of razing it to the ground and starting over from scratch containment is the only possible way to keep the cancer from spreading.

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4 responses to “Camden to disband police force”

Vega

August 27, 2012 at 4:56 pm

The county will be paying for this new, non-collective bargaining police force. This saves Camden a lot of money to focus on rebuilding infrastructure. Of course in reality, what little tax revenue they have (less than half where it should be, since so many properties are abandoned or non-tax-paying) is going to get swallowed up by the city government’s various corruptions. I also worry that police corruption will become a greater issue with a non-unionized police force. One thing that is almost certain is Camden and it’s surrounding cities will not benefit in the slightest from this change of structure.

Reply
1. Trench Reynolds
  
  August 27, 2012 at 7:46 pm
  
  I agree with what you say and not to get off topic but how could a non-unionized police force be any more corrupt than a unionized one. Having grown up in New Jersey I’ve watched many a labor union become rife with greed and nepotism.
  
  Reply
  1. Vega
    
    August 28, 2012 at 2:20 pm
    
    Well I agree with that, my opinion is primarily based on research in the retail services area so professional/emergency services might be a different scenario. It’s been found and I’ve personally observed that, again specifically looking at retail, that those with collective bargaining power are less likely to commit fraud or theft on the job. This, I believe, is a direct result of the improved wages/benefits associated with collective bargaining. I’m not a strong supporter of Unions, I find the modern implementation to be a bit parasitic, but I’ll admit they have their merits.
    
    Reply
    1. Trench Reynolds
      
      August 28, 2012 at 11:43 pm
      
      I can see that in a retail environment however in a police environment I think a unionized force would be more corrupt since they have that extra level of protection from the city.
      
      Reply