.
That Bloomberg article is bullshit and only covers pro-Christie points.
The increases in security are in part due to the surveillance system, which tracks everyone leaving their home or in their backyards, their car movement, etc. It has nothing to do with the change of the police department. Unfortunately, most of the crime was petty drug transactions which adversely affected the AA community and incarcerated many young males.
Christie's goal was to cut police spending, by replacing the police department, made up mostly by Camden residents with a county police department that brought in mostly White suburban officers. The Camden PD officers were given an ultimatum, either accept a 30-50% cut in wages and benefits or look for another job. Entry level officers were paid what was NJ's adjusted poverty wages in the upper $20K range, and most of the junior officers were struggling to feed themselves and pay rent.
The White suburban officers just used Camden County PD as a stepping stone to get experience before jumping ship to a rural police department. Most NJ police departments don't like to hire rookies because they have to pay for their training at Sea Girt so they look for officers who already went through the that State Police Training Academy facility. CCOD would pay for that training and give the officers experience, so they were willing to accept the poverty wages offered.
Christie's other goal was to smash the NJEA (teacher's union) as his prior job was a lobbyist, and part owner of school outsourcer before becoming governor. His aimed to weaken the Camden School system even more by vouchering a lot of students and causing the layoffs of unionized teachers.
====
So, while the Bloomberg article pains a Pollyanna view of the Camden County PD, there's a lot more to it that was unreported. Also, the Rutgers, CCCC and Rowan campuses added scores of unarmed security officers to provide campus security and security to the PATCO rail system. This cut a lot of crime down.
.
= new reply since forum marked as read