What we know:
After many protests around the world have demanded the city of Minneapolis to disband or increase the number of budget cuts for the police department, the city is finally considering it. Disbanding the police department is not common and no one has attempted to try. Unlike cities such as Minneapolis considering this extreme measure others such as Camden, New Jersey dismantle their own police department seven years ago and this is where they are now:
- Camden dissolved its police department in 2012 and replaced it with an entirely new one due to continuous corruption in the agency that was named “unfixable”. Before the dissolution of the department, Camden was named one of the most violent cities in the US.
Seven years ago, Camden, New Jersey, overhauled its police department to focus on community policing. The results after years of hard work have been lauded. Now other cities are asking Camden how they did it. @CydneyLongNBC10 reports: https://t.co/ACI8UPQXw3 pic.twitter.com/TSyjQmP9wr
— NBC10 Philadelphia (@NBCPhiladelphia) June 9, 2020
- The city’s crime was among the worst and multiple lawsuits against the department from officers planting evidence, fabricated reports, and committed perjury.
- Nearly 75,000 residents, there were over 170 open-air drug markets reported in 2013. The people were afraid of the department and feared repercussions.
- According to Camden County freeholder director, Louis Cappelli the “the department still has ways to go, but its efforts over the last seven years have been largely successful”.
Former @CamdenCountyPD Chief Scott Thomson says when Camden disbanded its police force in 2012 and rebuilt it, they wanted officers to “identify more as a member of the Peace Corps than being a special forces operator.” #MTPDaily
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 8, 2020
- “Guardians Not Warriors” has been the prime focus of the Camden police. The goal was to establish trust and develop new strategic ways of “de-escalating” the situation.
- The new department has more officers on the streets listening to the people than in their cars to establish open communication. They are trained to use their words, and guns are a last resort. They are taught on the first day to knock on the doors of homes in the neighborhood they’re assigned to patrol and introduce themselves.
- The new force hosts pop-up barbecues, drive-in movie nights to reestablish trust and direct communication.
- The department un-hired and than hired back most veteran officers and then 150 new officers — 50% of officers are now minorities to the new force. Since the change, shootings and murders have gone down by 50%.
Even after all the new tactics that the new force has established, there is still crime amongst the city. The reconstruction has left Camden city with 356,000 fewer residents. The new force tells media outlets that their demographics are different than Minneapolis and Camden’s population is only 17% of Minneapolis. As for the public, the new force has been idolized and cheered on for their extreme measure.
