Recent articles on Camden Police Contract

Philadelphia Inquirer
------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted on Fri, Feb. 25, 2005

Harvey delays Council vote on police, firefighter contracts
The attorney general got a 2-week postponement so he could review them. Union officials were perturbed.

By Sam Wood and Dwight Ott
Inquirer Staff Writers

State Attorney General Peter Harvey unexpectedly stepped in at the eleventh hour and obtained a two-week postponement for ratification of Camden's contracts with its police and fire unions.

Harvey's request was relayed to City Council last night by the city's state-appointed chief operating officer, Melvin R. "Randy" Primas Jr. It came after two members of the attorney general's Camden police blue-ribbon commission tried to delay approval.

Jeffrey Brenner, a family physician and member of the commission, called Harvey's intervention "outstanding" and said "it gives the public a chance to look at this."

Police union officials blasted Brenner and warned that police morale would plummet because of the delay. They said they would likely file an unfair labor practice complaint against the city with the National Labor Relations Board.

In his letter to Primas, Harvey said he had not had an opportunity to review the pact, which calls for a 4 percent raise over the next five years for police and firefighters.

"I remain concerned," Harvey said, "that any agreement provides enhanced opportunities for the leadership of the Camden Police Department to deploy personnel in an effective and cost-efficient manner while focusing clearly on the public safety needs of the citizens of Camden."

The unions have approved the contract.

About 120 people turned out for the Council meeting despite the snowstorm.

The contract calls for the establishment of a police unit that could give Chief Edwin Figueroa flexibility in addressing crime.

Sharon Miller, chairwoman of the city public safety council, which works closely with police, said that while she had the highest regard for Camden police, it would be a "slap in the face of the community" to adopt the agreement without giving residents a better chance to look at it.

"The headline on this story should be 'Something stinks,' " Bill Murray, president of the Camden Organization of Police Superiors, said during an impromptu debate in a hallway after Council tabled the agreement. "Even if it is reviewed by the residents and they don't think it is a good contract, that doesn't mean what they suggest would be acceptable."

John Williamson, president of the Camden lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, said failure to adopt the pact would hurt morale.

Earlier in the day, Brenner complained that the contract "doesn't come close to fixing Camden's crime problems." He said he had "serious concerns" about how the department's policy of rotating shifts weekly might affect officers.

"It's like giving the officers jet lag every week," he said.

Currently, Camden police officers work four midnight shifts followed by two days off, then four day shifts with three days off, then four night shifts with four days off. The new contract would retain that schedule.

"It's not healthy for the police officers, it probably increases sick time, and it's not good for their alertness," Brenner said.

He said modern police departments had steady shifts.

A survey of police departments in Philadelphia, New York, Trenton, Newark, N.J., Washington and Baltimore found that none had a shift system like Camden's, and that all had a fixed staff for the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift.
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Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 856-779-3838 or samwood@phillynews.com.

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© 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com



Philadelphia Inquirer
------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted on Thu, Feb. 24, 2005

Doctor questions work schedules in new Camden police contract
By Sam Wood
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A Camden family doctor is leading a last minute effort to delay approval of the city's new police contract.

The 4-year contract is expected to come up for a vote tonight in Camden's City Council.

Dr. Jeff Brenner, who sits on the Attorney General's "Blue Ribbon Panel," that oversees the police department, said he had "serious concerns" about how officers are scheduled and the departments policy of rotating shifts.

"It's like giving the officers jet lag every week," Brenner said.

Currently, Camden police officers work four midnight shifts, then have two days off; then work four day shifts (approx 7 to 4) with three days off; then work four night shifts (approx 3 to midnight) with four days off.

The new contract continues the scheduling practice.

"It's not healthy for the police officers, it probably increases sick time and it's not good for their alertness," Brenner said. "Its also not good policing."

Brenner said modern police departments have steady shifts and officers re-bid every year to move to a different shift. A quick survey of police departments bears out Brenner's statement.

In Philadelphia, police are scheduled in three shifts. Officers work two weeks of days - from approx. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. - then work two weeks of night shifts that run from approx 4 p.m. to midnight. The midnight shift does not rotate and is staffed by the same officers year-round, a department spokeswoman said.

In Trenton, Newark, Washington D.C. and New York City, officers do not rotate through shifts, department spokesmen said.

In Baltimore, officers work four weeks on day shift and four weeks nights. The midnight shift is manned by a permanent non-rotating staff.

"I'm a doctor, I'm not a police administrator," Brenner said. "But something does not sound right with this police contract."

The police unions wish Brenner would just butt out and stick to treating his patients.

"I find it hard to believe a doctor has any clue about police deployment," said Bill Murray, president of the Police Superiors union.

Murray said a steady work schedule for officers was proposed during contract negotiations.

"We were ready to agree to it and it would have worked for everyone," Murray said. "But when it came to crunching numbers we found we didn't have enough personel and when the chief asked for more personel the city balked at it."

John Williamson, president of the Camden lodge of the FOP concurred.

"It would have created an officer safety issue," Williamson said. "The reason the steady shifts didn't go over was because we're short on personel."

"If Jefferey Brenner thinks he can deploy personel in the Camden police department better than [Chief] Ed Figueroa he should leave his job, go the police academy and get a job as a Camden street cop. Let him walk a mile in Ed Figueroa's shoes before he tells him how to deploy his police personel."
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© 2005 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com

Philadelphia Inquirer- Letter to the Editor

Posted on Thu, Dec. 09, 2004

Anticrime strategy key for Camden
Officers' shifts should match crime patterns.
By Jeffrey Brenner and Richard A. Harris


Camden stands at a critical juncture in its efforts toward economic recovery. With a significant commitment from Trenton, remarkable strides have been taken to attract public and private development to the city. The hospitals and universities are expanding, new tourist attractions are under construction at the waterfront, market-rate housing is coming to several neighborhoods, and businesses are opening downtown. Regrettably, this progress is threatened by Camden's violence and crime, fed largely by a robust drug trade.

Statistical publisher Morgan Quitno rated Camden the most dangerous city in the country for 2003. The FBI's national Uniform Crime Report shows increases in Camden crime from 2002 to 2003 of 41 percent for robberies, 24 percent for murder, 26 percent for burglary, 24 percent for rape, and 22 percent for aggravated assault. Recent crimes are a sobering reminder of the real-life impact of the data: Recently a stray bullet from a drug-corner shoot-out hit a 2-year-old.

While any thoughtful observer of urban decline must acknowledge its deep roots in middle-class flight, the exodus of business, and racial disharmony, Camden cannot afford to tolerate its current level of crime while its people wait for the redress of these long-standing issues. Attacking the city's public-safety crisis immediately is essential for revitalization. The key to an anticrime effort must be sound police strategy guided by a strong empirical assessment and supported by the criminal-justice system as well as key community leaders.

In Camden, research already exists to help the police formulate a strategy. The department of family medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has examined assault data from the Cooper University Hospital emergency room for 2001 through 2003. Also, the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers University-Camden has worked with the Camden police to analyze records of violent crime. These research efforts paint a similar picture.

The family medicine department documented a steady increase in residents coming to the emergency room after assaults. Most assaults were unarmed fights, and victims were 16 to 24 years old. The assault rate in the city is quite variable, especially in the Lanning Square area near downtown. The assault rate in Lanning Square climbed from one in 100 residents going to the Cooper emergency room in 2001 to one in 40 in 2003.

The Rand Institute identified incidents of aggravated assault, especially assaults with a gun, as critical in Camden. Tracking with the emergency-room assault data, this research shows that 18- to 24-year-old men are usually both the perpetrators and victims in aggravated assaults in the city. Aggravated assaults reported in Camden went from 983 in 1999 to a low of 757 in 2002 and back up to 973 in 2003.

Mapping these crimes geographically shows that several neighborhoods are affected, with high concentrations in central Camden (Lanning and Bergen Squares and Centerville) and East Camden (Stockton, Marlton and Dudley). The incidents of aggravated assaults match up closely with identified drug sets and with major arteries that access the city. These crimes tend to occur between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, with monthly peaks July through September.

Based on this research, we have a reasonably clear picture of who is committing violent crime and who the victims are. We also have a good idea of when and where these crimes are being committed. This situation raises the question, "Why haven't the police been successful in combating violent crime?"

Since November 1998, the Camden County Prosecutor's Office has overseen the city's Police Department. Administrative and leadership breakdowns in the department have been documented in audits by the state Division of Criminal Justice in 1987, 1996, 1998 and 2002. The audits reported breakdowns in such areas as telecommunications, the evidence room, the motor pool, internal affairs, and deployment. Many of the reported problems have been fixed in a partnership between the Prosecutor's Office and the Police Department, but several remain, chief among them officer deployment.

Since 1996, the state has recommended that city officers be deployed in work shifts consistent with the crime patterns. In 2002, the state wrote, "It is essential that the work schedule be removed from the collective bargaining agreement, and that management then deploy officers in numbers proportionate to the varying workload demands by day of week, hour of day, and location." The current police contract is set to expire this month, providing an opportunity to renegotiate the contract to allow more sensible deployment of officers.

We urge the city's leadership and the leadership of the police bargaining unit to focus on what is best for Camden by renegotiating this work-rule provision and following the repeated recommendations of the state. Only then will the police be able to implement an anticrime strategy that is driven by what we know about violent crime in Camden.

Repeatedly, the state has sent the state police as a temporary fix to address crime in Camden. As crime and public attention decline, they begin to withdraw the officers. Their current deployment is no different, with numbers starting at 100 last year and falling below 20 uniformed patrol officers now. This comes at a precarious time because a hiring freeze in the Camden Police Department has prevented the replacement of 16 officers.

While the state police's return is helpful in the short run, the attrition of Camden police makes sensible and strategic assignment of the remaining officers only more urgent. Unless the system of inappropriate work rules changes, a sound deployment strategy is not possible.

Poverty and lack of opportunity contribute to a high crime rate in Camden. However, most residents in Camden are law-abiding citizens. They deserve safe neighborhoods and a chief of police and Police Department that are committed to fighting crime, without a work schedule that impairs effective law enforcement.
Jeffrey Brenner is a family physician who lives and works in Camden. He can be reached at brennejc@umdnj.edu. Richard A. Harris is director of the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers-Camden. To learn more, visit www.camconnect.org/.



© 2004 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com