OUT OF
TOWN COPS
to abuse of a state family medical leave program overseen by the
city, not any provision in the police
union’s contract. He calls it peripheral to Camden’s overall public
safety crisis. “You fix the 30 percent issue, that doesn’t change our
situation,” he says. “We’re still at
1962 staffing levels.”
He says he has no comment on
the $14 million to $16 million in
fringe spending that county officials
say they will eliminate by liquidating the current police force.
“I’m not intimately involved in
the finance end of this. My primary
focus is keeping the public safe,” he
says. “I’m not bean counting in the
back room.”
Thomson adds that he cannot
agree with Christie’s assessment
that Camden’s current police contract is “obscene” — or even say
whether it is more or less generous
than the average police contract in
New Jersey.
“I don’t know. I don’t have a
baseline of comparison,” he says.
“Without knowing what the
other contracts are, that’s a difficult comparison.”
Nevertheless, Thomson calls the
current police contract unsustainable, given Camden’s dire economic
situation. Switching to the metro
HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
agency will not solve all of Camden’s problems, but will boost the
number of cops on the street and
help bring crime to a more manageable level, he says.
“I don’t think there’s any other
“THEY’RE EXPERIMENTING
WITH... LIVES... THEY’RE USING
THE CITY AS A GUINEA PIG.”
option,” he says. “The status quo
cannot remain.”
Out on the streets, Camden
residents call the city’s crime rate
intolerable, and condemn the economic calculus by the city and state
that forced deep cuts to policing
even in the face of soaring violence.
A few welcome the creation of the
metro police force and the promised surge of cops on the beat. For
many others, the move represents a
worrying leap into the unknown.
“They’re experimenting with
the lives of the people,” says Rev.
David King, a local activist and
a pastor at Community Baptist
Church. “They’re using the city as
a guinea pig.”
“People are afraid,” he says.
“They don’t know what’s
going to happen.”