Photo by Mary Rose Madden
In part 9 of On the Watch, WYPR’s OSI-funded series on community policing, reporter Mary Rose Madden goes to Camden, New Jersey, where homicides have dropped 24% in recent years, after the police department was disbanded and re-formed with a community policing model.
Madden walks the beat with Camden cops to see how attitudes and practices have changed – she records as minor potential infractions are ignored and cops express concern for people’s safety – along with technology.
Ultimately, Madden explores whether the changes in Camden, a city of 77,000 people, are relevant to Baltimore, a city of 620,000, and finds that budget issues and Baltimore’s police union, which has been hostile to reform, are among the barriers.
