Police Reformers: On The Ground in Camden and Baltimore

What does it take to improve a police department? Police critics and reform-minded leaders have employed a variety of tactics, ranging from protest and civil disobedience to highlight excessive force, and dismantling and rebuilding an entire department to reduce crime rates, to seeking judicial intervention and independent monitors to shepherd police departments through generational change, and cracking down on powerful police unions.
Camden, New Jersey, famously had its police department dissolved in 2013, replacing an embattled agency by hiring and, in some cases rehiring, officers without the encumbrances of union contracts. In the years following, Camden’s violent crime fell 23 percent, while nonviolent crime fell 48 percent. What lessons can we learn from Camden? Is this a problem for state and local leaders or is there a necessary role for the federal government, as in Baltimore, Maryland, where a 2015 DOJ investigation into the Police Department resulted in a federally mandated monitor. We are pleased to present this panel featuring Chief J. Scott Thomson, who oversaw Camden’s bold restart, Ganesha Martin, who advised on Baltimore's consent decree, and other police reform experts.
PANELISTS:
Retired Chief J. Scott Thomson, who managed the overhaul and heralded transformation of the Camden Police Department. Currently, he serves as Executive Director of Global Security for Holtec International;
Stephen Eide, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; Contributing Editor, City Journal;
Ganesha Martin, who led the implementation team for the structural reforms at the Baltimore Police Department as BPD Chief of the Department of Justice Compliance and Accountability/External Affairs. Currently, she serves as Vice President of Public Policy and Community Affairs for Mark43;
Daniel DiSalvo, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute; Professor of Political Science in the Colin Powell School, City College of New York-CUNY.
MODERATOR:
Peter Moskos, former Baltimore City Police Officer; Associate Professor, Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

[@kkampy4052]

Where I live, the police are "code zero" all the time, there are no available officers. There are 3 areas of the city where they probably run 70% of their calls, all primarily black and gov housing. These places will explode with less police.

[@Lordzero-dk5bk]

no more fucking training no more

[@Lordzero-dk5bk]

I am tired of hearing that shit.