State Budget Shortfalls Force Austerity Measures

Violent Crime Spikes after Camden, New Jersey, Halves Police Force

March 7, 2011

The Lookout - Two months after Camden, NJ, laid off 160 police officers, city prosecutors have released a sobering report showing a dramatic rise in violent crime in the drug-and-crime-ridden city of 80,000 residents.

Aggravated assaults with firearms jumped 259 percent in January and February compared to last year, and violent crime over all is up 19 percent, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Murders and robberies, however, were down for the period.

"I can't tell you we're seeing an increase in crime because of the layoffs," Thomas Garrity Jr., the Prosecutor's Office investigations chief, told the paper. "I do know we have the perfect storm that includes a sluggish economy, the proliferation of national gangs, and a reduction of police manpower throughout the county."

Many other municipal and state governments now find themselves reckoning with similar perfect storms. In recent months, mayors and governors have been significantly cutting what are usually considered untouchable services like cops, teachers, and basic medical care.

Michigan officials say Detroit must close half of its schools, and officials are debating a proposal to let classroom sizes shoot up to an average of 60 students. Arizona is denying lifesaving organ transplants to people on state Medicaid rolls. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal slashes $1 billion to schools and local governments over two years and cuts 1,200 state jobs. California Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing $12.5 billion in cuts to social services, universities, and other programs while asking for a $9.3 billion tax hike over the next five years.

These state-level cuts will trickle down to cities and towns, exacerbating huge budget deficits like Camden's.

Camden Police Chief J. Scott Thomson has cut his salary by $15,000 and demoted many of his remaining senior police officers to patrol positions after the massive layoffs, according to The New York Times. After union-city negotiations broke down in January, the city fired nearly every officer hired after 1998, following the union-dictated seniority layoff policy. So the remaining police force of 200 officers is middle-aged.

"They love seeing a 40-year-old cop get out of that car instead of a 24-year-old guy who can actually chase them down," an unnamed police officer told the Times, referring to criminals.

And residents are wasting their time, sources say, if they report nonviolent serious crimes.

"If you're not shot or murdered, or if it does not involve a drug gang, it's not going to be investigated," another anonymous cop told the Times.

An anti-crime group called The Guardian Angels volunteered to patrol the streets after January's layoffs.

Camden Mayor Dana Redd said 100 police officers could have kept their jobs if they took a 20 percent wage cut. The officers instead agreed to a wage freeze and unpaid leave days, which was rejected. Sixty-seven firefighters and 100 clerks were also axed in an attempt to close the city's $26.5 million deficit, according to the Star-Ledger. The Camden public library was shut down as well.

Camden is one of the nation's most impoverished and crime-ridden cities, though a drop in the murder rate in 2009 and 2010 raised hopes among residents that the tide could be turning.