This City Dissolved Its Police Department 7-Years Ago, Here's What It Looks Like Now

[rangerrebew]

This City Dissolved Its Police Department 7-Years Ago, Here's What It Looks Like Now
daniel daniel August 27, 2021   

Across the country, protesters have been filling the streets and calling to "defund the police".

What this actually entails is still in debate. Some people are calling for the complete defunding of the police department, which would essentially mean an abolition of the police department.

If they're not getting any money, they're not going to work for free. That would be stupid. They don't get paid enough as is to put their lives on the line.

Some people are saying that it doesn't actually mean defunding them completely, but instead that it means to cut their budgets severely.

Well, one city in the U.S. has actually done something very similar and reformed its police force.

https://civildeadline.com/this-city-dissolved-its-police-department-7-years-ago-heres-what-it-looks-like-now/

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Just like tallying Covid cases, those who tabulate crimes can make up any statistics they want.

Crime is likely much worse than shown.

[Cyber Liberty]

The city under discussion is Camden NJ.  I can't comment, because I am too busy laughing my butt off.

Camden is across the Ben Franklin bridge, and it's even worse than Philly.

[Kamaji]

Yeah, here's the kicker: 

The transformation began after the 2012 homicide spike. The department wanted to put more officers on patrol but couldn’t afford to hire more, partly because of generous union contracts. So in 2013, the mayor and city council dissolved the local PD and signed an agreement for the county to provide shared services. The new county force is double the size of the old one, and officers almost exclusively patrol the city. (They were initially nonunion but have since unionized.)

So, no, they didn't actually "defund" the police, they simply welched on someone else's force, and someone else paid for all those new cops.

What bullshit.

Camden isn't an example of what happens when you defund the police.  They have just as many cops as they had before.

Perhaps more important is the additional training those cops got.  That's the truly important takeaway.

[Gefn]

The city under discussion is Camden NJ.  I can't comment, because I am too busy laughing my butt off.

Camden is across the Ben Franklin bridge, and it's even worse than Philly.

Yet Camden is the home to the Campbell Soup company, and a law college that is part of Rutgers. Walt Whitman is buried there.

One of my Literature professors said Camden was once a really pretty city. This was in the 80s

[Smokin Joe]

Just like tallying Covid cases, those who tabulate crimes can make up any statistics they want.

Crime is likely much worse than shown.

If no one fills out the paperwork, it didn't happen, capisce?