Did a New Jersey city see lower crime rates after rebuilding its police force?
Thursday, June 25, 2020
By William Boger
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YES
Violent crime of all kinds has dropped 42% since 2012 in Camden, New Jersey, when the city closed its police department and transferred responsibility to a new county-managed organization, Even so, it remains a relatively high-crime city, with 2018 federally-reported statistics placing it in the bottom 5% of U.S. cities, according to a private database.
Camden's history has received renewed media attention amid recent calls for major police reforms, with different advocates drawing different lessons. "While largely a success story, the overhaul was by no means a clear win for social-justice progressives who are driving the police-reform debate nationally," Politico reports. "The Camden police reform was—and remains—politically divisive."
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