Article from For Liberty by Norm Leahy.
Some advocates of police reform are pointing to the experience in Camden, New Jersey as a possible national model. But there’s more to the Camden story than meets the eye.
In 2013, Camden scrapped its existing police department, which was not only ineffective at fighting crime but was riddled with corruption.
The new department was a complete reboot: different training methods, more public accountability.
And the old police union contracts were tossed.
This last item may be more important than some reformers give it credit for:
[Camden’s] Union contracts had made it all but impossible for the city to run an effective police department. Generous sick time and family-leave provisions resulted in a dysfunctional department with an extraordinary high absentee rate.
According to the Times, “every day, nearly 30 percent of the force does not show up.” (This rate was at least triple the national average.)
Contracts were also structured to goose officers’ salaries for simply going to work. A 10 percent bonus was given for working a night shift. A 4 percent bonus was given for working the day shift. Police received an 11 percent increase for working on “an anticrime patrol” or special tactical unit.
Combined with generous fringe benefits, the average cost was $182,168 per officer.
The contracts also insulated bad cops from accountability, making the old department both costly and corrupt.
Camden’s reforms aren’t without their critics. But the city took aggressive, innovative action when circumstances demanded it – up to and including holding the unions accountable.
Image Credit: By Tony Webster [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
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Camden New Jersey is a Black Racist Anti-White People City that should be Burned down.
Time for all the other city unions to unite and walk out in sympathy.
Another blue-demo city that has self destructed. No police no protection no safety. Careful all you dummies out there, you may get the protection you ask for……NONE!!!
This story is incomplete . . .you can’t tell if the city itself was corrupt or what politicts were behind it.Unions alone can’t stop firing of corrupt officers. A good and lawful civil service protection for police is essential where only proven misconduct can summutarilly fire an officer or the chief . . .
This story is incomplete . . .you can’t tell if the city itself was corrupt or what politicts were behind it.Unions alone can’t stop firing of corrupt officers. A good and lawful civil service protection for police is essential where only proven misconduct can summutarilly fire an officer or the chief . . .
The only thing that should be noted in this article and taken to heart is the destruction of the power to protect bad cops. Every thing else the union did was to promote the police. It’s interesting to note, however, that at any point during “contract” discussions, the City can say NO! All police contracts should come with a required arbitration and NO strikes with severe penalties for violations. There are all kinds of reasons there should be no “service” unions. They create situations that can bankrupt cities, States, and even the U.S. (which is already arguably bankrupt.)
All black communities have corruption and crime. There is no solution. They are the same the world around.
Integration was a sure death to any civilized society. Diversity is not a strength, it is a death sentence.
to have a police office that will operate without corruption or be politically biased free, the 1st thing you must do, is make each officer (employee) to be held accountable for his/hers actions. instead of the good old boy way like we have now. The police now have been operating like a click, like there better than anybody else & that there are above the law that they force on us. And another big thing they have become thieves. Taking peoples money, property, cars and so on. This needs to stop or I wish all of them to shut down without pension.
Unions were invented by large corporations so the employees could be dealt with as a group with criminals who worked for the corporation secretly to “represent” the interests of the employees, and criminals in the corporation to “represent” the interests of the minority stock holders. Look where all those jobs went and where that stock equity went.
Police unions are essential and should have all good American’s support
THERE IS SO MUCH CRIME EVERY DAY. CAN ANYONE IMAGIN WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE WITH OUT THE POLICE.????
THERE IS CORRUPTION IN OUR GOVERNMENT , THERE IS CORRUPTION ALL OVER. JUST LOOK AT ALL THE RHINOS. BUT NO MATTER WHERE YOU LOOK , IF YOU REALLY WANT TO STOP CORRUPTION, YOU HAD TO ABOLISH MOST PEOPLE IN THE SENATE, BUT WE DO NEED POLICE PROTECTION OR WE ARE DOOMED.
BESIDES JUST LOOK AT THE HOODLOMS THESE GUYS HAVE TO FACE EVERY DAY, NO ONE WANTS TO DEAL WITH SUCH SCUM, THEY SEEM TO HAVE 100% MORE RIGHTS THEN HARD WORKING CITIZENS.
WE NEED MUCH STRICTER LAWS, THESE CRIMINALS DO NOT CARE IF THEY HAVE TO GO TO JAIL, THEY GET 3 MEALS A DAY, FREE MEDICAL, DO NOT HAVE TO WORK,THEY GET DRUGS PLUS EVERYTHING THEIR HEART DESIRES.
THEY RUN THE PRISONS. NO WONDER WE NEVER GET RID OF CRIMINALS. ALL THESE BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS, MAKE A MOCKERY OF THE CRIMINAL SYSTEM.ALL THE MONEY SPEND ON THAT IS ALL FOR NOTHING.
As a former New Jersey resident I stayed away from Camden. I didn’t know they even HAD a police department. It is a hell hole. They should be paying those cops DOUBLE,