Behind the Badge

Police layoffs are bad for the department and bad for citizens

With the recent talk of layoffs, I would like to provide some insight into why it’s so important to bring in and maintain young officers. The 2010 demotions and 2011 layoffs was a big blow to the Trenton Police Department and the city. As everyone knows over 100 officers were laid off and over 50 supervisors demoted. The department went from approximately 350 officers and supervisors to a department with 229. This demoralized a once great police department, and left it trying to do more with less. The department went from a pro-active mindset to one that became reactive. Reactive to crime patterns, and reactive to violence. It felt as if we were chasing our own tail. Obviously, crime rose from the lack of personnel and the lack of support from leaders of this community.

The three year break without having a new recruit class brought about a feeling of hopelessness within the force. The lack of movement and lack of new blood further discouraged the members of the department. Many of those officers that were laid off found jobs in other departments and refused to come back when given the opportunity. We became an older department with the youngest patrol officers having more than five years on the job. The department stagnated. There were no new hires and no new promotions with so many demoted supervisors waiting to be re-promoted. In addition, bad leadership during the Tony Mack years brought about record-breaking violent crime, with the record-breaking year for homicides in 2013 at 37 murders.

By March of 2016, all of those that were still demoted, five and half years after the layoffs, were finally re-promoted back to their original ranks. In addition, since September of 2014, the hiring of over 100 new officers has brought the total number of officers and supervisors to approximately 290 officers. While nowhere near the pre-layoff number of 350, but still large enough to combat crime in the city.

With the new officers making up a large contingent of the patrol officers, they are more willing to engage and combat crime more aggressively. They have not been inundated with the negativity that comes with being a police officer and have not been around long enough to pick up the bad habits that some older officers display. New promotions allow for new ideas and new growth. A continuation of new officers and new supervisors grows the department in a positive way as new replaces old ideas and old ways of doing things.

Police leaders are some of the most superstitious individuals. There is a belief that if you brag about the good work your people are doing that really bad things will happen to provide proof that the police truly do not control crime. I always disagreed with that belief knowing that all the public saw and believed were the negative stories in the media, whether those stories were true or not. It is my opinion that the public needs to know the good work that is happening daily to offset that negativity and to provide evidence that officers are out there trying to make Trenton a safer place.

The year 2018 saw a significant drop in violent crime in Trenton at 9.4%. Violent crime includes homicides, robberies, sexual assaults, and aggravated assaults, with homicides making a significant drop from the 23 in 2017 to the 17 in 2018 (this does not include vehicular homicide), a 26.1% drop. In addition, in 2018 there were a total of 67 non-fatal shootings in the city with 88 victims. Compared to 2017, where there were a total of 108 non-fatal shootings with 131 victims, a decrease of 38% in nonfatal shootings and a decrease of 32% in the number of victims. The Shooting Response Team arrested individuals in 24 of the cases with a clearance rate of 39%, an outstanding number.

In terms of the Special Operations Bureau, that include the Violent Crime Unit and the two Street Crimes Units, they made over 1,300 arrests, confiscated 144 guns, 3,889 grams of cocaine, 59,086 decks of heroin, 10,710 grams of marijuana, 3,107 prescription pills and over $412,988 in proceeds from illicit activity. These units keep a lid on the level of violence in the city by targeting known violent individuals and gang members.

While violent crime went down, property crimes rose approximately 12.8%. Property crimes include burglaries, thefts and auto thefts. Most of these are committed by individuals with alcohol and drug addictions or juveniles trying to make a quick dollar. With Trenton having and maintaining most of the social services for the less fortunate in Mercer County, it has become a magnet for those with addictions with many coming from outside of Trenton. In addition, the bail reform perceives these individuals as non-violent and works to keep them out of jail while they wait for their day in court. Just enough time to commit more property crimes. I believe that better education on security measures for the citizens would lower these property crime numbers.

Trenton has many issues but the officers continue to perform and work toward lowering crime especially violent crime in the city. With the number of new officers added to the force and the continued development of new supervisors, crime in Trenton will continue to fall. Another layoff will hurt that momentum and in turn, hurt the prospects of revitalizing Trenton.