The police department for one of the nation’s most dangerous cities has been disbanded due to budget woes and maybe things might get better.
It wasn’t as thought the existing structure was keeping the streets safe in Camden, N.J.
The city will now be patrolled by a new — and non-union — division of the Camden County Police.
When things are as broken as they were in Camden the only really stupid thing to do would be nothing.
Fewer than half of the city’s 460 police officers will be transferred to the new department who will join new officers.
Camden has a population of about 77,000. Compare that to Upper Darby, Pa., — not so far away and bordering West Philadelphia without the luxury of major river border – which has a population of 81,000 and 135 police officers.
Maybe now is the time to begin at the beginning. What do you want your police to be and do? What are the qualities we should seek from those who police our streets? For insight and direction on this and other important police improvement issues, take a look at “Arrested Development: A Veteran Police Chief Sounds Off About Protest, Racism, Corruption and the Seven Steps Necessary to Improve Our Nation’s Police” (Amazon.com in US and EU). And the blog at http://improvingpolice.wordpress.com/ where other current police improvement issues are discussed. Good luck and may we all experience not just good but great policing! Great policing is accomplished by police who are well-trained and led, restrained in their use of force, honest, and courteous to every citizen.
Long-time Madison, Wisc Police Chief David Couper has a stellar reputation. I’m going to buy his book.