newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Camden's police department will no longer be able to respond to vehicle accidents without injuries, minor thefts and vandalism due to layoffs, Police Chief Scott Thomson said.

Residents will now have to phone those incidents in or visit headquarters.

Camden was dueto lay off around a quarter of its workforce on Tuesday, including almost half its police, to close a $26.5 million budget deficit.

Thomson said he will have about 200 officers to police one of the nation's most dangerous cities.

Reuters reports that Camden, rated as one of the most dangerous cities in America, plans to fire 180 police, or 43 percent of the force; 67 firefighters, and 150 other workers to balance its budget.

Laid-off workers were scheduled to leave their jobs on Tuesday but final numbers were not immediately available because negotiations between city officials and unions were still going on, said Robert Corrales, a spokesman for Camden Mayor Dana Redd.

Officials have been seeking concessions on areas such as health benefits from unions in the hope of averting some layoffs. The police union and the city are trading accusations: Mayor Dana Redd accuses the police of failing to make concessions, a charge the Fraternal Order of Police denies.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports about 92 percent of his remaining officers will be dedicated to street patrol and investigations, while the administrative departments will bear the brunt of the reductions. About 45 ranking officers, being demoted in the cuts, will return to patrol, according to Thomson.

Last Friday, Camden County formally announced a proposal to create a regionalized police and fire force, drawing skepticism and questions from local law enforcement officials, according to philly.com.

Some of their questions were: Would police end up spending all their time in Camden at the suburbs' expense? Would towns pay for police services based on their crime rates, their population, or some other measure?

According to salon.com, Camden's population has shrunk from over 120,000 to just 79,000 in recent decades. It was once home to Campbell Soup factories and RCA Victor. Walt Whitman is buried there. "I dreamed I saw a city invincible," a line paraphrased from his poem, "Leaves of Grass, "is engraved on the city hall's facade. Deindustrialization has remade Camden into a regional hub for narcotics trafficking, prostitution, corruption and joblessness, plagued by violent battles over drug corners. Three mayors over a two-decade period have ended up behind bars.