N.J. city plans to disband police

Camden officials say will increase safety

CAMDEN, N.J. — Two gruesome murders of children last month — a toddler decapitated, a 6-year-old stabbed in his sleep — served as reminders of this city’s reputation as the most dangerous in America. Others can be found along the blocks of row houses spray-painted “RIP,” empty liquor bottles clustered on their porches, memorials to murder victims.

Police acknowledge that prior layoffs have all but ceded these streets to crime, which is on track to break records this year. And now, in a desperate move to regain control, city officials are planning to disband the police department.

The reason, officials say, is that generous union contracts have made it financially impossible to keep enough officers on the street. So in November, Camden will begin laying off all of its 273 officers and give control to a new county force. The move, officials say, will free up millions to hire a larger, nonunionized force of 400 officers to safeguard the city, which is also the nation’s poorest.

Hardly a political battle of the last several years has been fiercer than the one over the fate of public-sector unions. But Camden’s decision to eliminate perhaps the most essential public service for a city riven by crime underscores how communities are taking previously unimaginable steps to get out from under union obligations that built up over generations.

A police union has sued to stop the move, saying it is risking public safety on an “unproven” idea. But many residents, community groups and elected officials say the city is simply out of money, out of options and out of patience.

“There’s no alternative, there’s no Plan B,” city council President Frank Moran said. “It’s the only option we have.”

Camden’s budget was $167 million last year, and of that, the police budget was $55 million. Yet the city collected only $21 million in property taxes.