Camden Isn’t Even Close
[December 5, 2008]

Mission Statement:  Camden, New Jersey
            “… to provide effective public safety services; through the implementation of innovative, directed and planned strategies for our citizens, businesses and visitors, so they can enjoy a safe, quality based community.:

Mission Statement:  Oakland, California: 
            “to provide competent, effective, public–safety services to all persons with the highest regard for human dignity through efficient, professional, and ethical law enforcement and crime prevention practices.”

Camden New Jersey’s always been bad:   

            Everyone knows Camden has lots of crime.  It’s been listed among the ten most dangerous cities in the United States since 1998.  Oakland has only recently climbed to the top. 

            In 2004, Oakland was ranked 27th in Violent Crimes reported [national cities over 100,000].  Wayne Tucker was named Chief of Police on February 4, 2005, and he instituted the most dramatic changes in OPD’s history.  Responding to calls and Investigations of crimes took a back seat to “Team Policing” and “Hot Spot” deployments.  There are no fixed or permanent Beat Systems any longer and the Criminal Investigation Division is gone as we knew it.  Seven headquarters facilities have warm chairs behind cold desks.  The empty myth of “Area Command” replaced around-the-clock command.  New roaming 12-hour shifts meant neither citizens nor cops could count on regularly seeing each other.  The Chief said early on that “Morale is not important.”  No-information led to no-planning.  The results showed.

            The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2007 shows that Oakland accelerated its Violent Crimes to Number 4.  This was made possible by a 60% paradigm escalation of Violent Crimes since 2004.  This is most dramatic when one considers the short three year period in which this was accomplished.  Note that as of December 3, 2008, Violent Crimes in Oakland are up another +4.2%.

Crime in the Hills vs. the Flatlands:

            Oakland is essentially two very different demographic models. The “Flatlands” comprise about half the population, and the “Hills” house the other half.  With greater specifics, some neighborhoods in the bifurcation properly belong outside the models discussed, but the understanding will be the same.

            The boundaries aren’t exact; nevertheless, they are familiar to every street cop as having dramatic character distinctions in terms of crime and violence.  “Below” [toward the bay] Telegraph from the Berkeley line and “below” [toward the estuary] MacArthur Boulevard all the way to San Leandro is generally regarded as the Flatlands.  Everything above is regarded as the Hills.

            The Flatlands have about half of Oakland’s population and land area.  Yet, the Flatlands account for 85% of the crime.  This can be determined by reviewing the crimes reported by OPD Crime Analysis and tabulating them by the Beats that fall within the Flatlands and the Hills.  First, the weekly reports of crimes by Beat for the month of November:

               
            For those who feel this may have been too small a sampling, Crime Analysis has a larger data base to utilize.  It is a separate compilation of rough data, so it was felt wise to study it apart from the weeklies.  However, the results are coincidentally the same:

Comparing Oakland’s Flatlands with Camden:

            It’s not even close.  Using a little algebra with the ratios determined above:

            Oakland’s Flatlands crime rate is at least 47% higher.  There are 47% more Murders, Rapes, Robberies and Aggravated Assaults committed in the Flatlands of Oakland than in Camden, New Jersey.  Note that we are allocating, as an estimate, 2.5 times more people living in the Flatlands of Oakland than in all of Camden.  Camden has fewer than 80,000 people and an area of only 8.8 square miles.  In other words, if we selected the worst crime areas in the Oakland Flatlands equal to the population and geography of Camden, our violence would be even greater.

The Good News:

            Oakland is not Camden. 

            The Camden Mayor was removed in 2000 “when he was convicted of accepting money from the mob, taking bribes from city contractors, laundering drug money and taking money from a political action committee.”  After 2002, the city government was essentially taken over by the state.  The governor appointed the Chief Operating Officer, who “…is responsible for the management of governmental operations of the City of Camden.”  Further, the COO is responsible for “…all the functions, powers and duties of the position of mayor, including those related to municipal organization and reorganization and the hiring and firing of department heads, managers and supervisory employees.”

            It was simply felt that Camden city government could no longer serve its citizens.