Letter to the Editor- Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted on Mon, Mar. 07, 2005

Letters | Camden's police need steady shifts

The City of Camden recently renegotiated contracts for supervisors and employees of its Police and Fire Departments. The contract renewal was six pages. (See www.camconnect.org.) This contract renewal was an opportunity to address long-standing and well-documented problems with officer deployment. Unfortunately, the city failed in its responsibility to protect the citizenry.

Four audits by the state Office of the Attorney General have repeatedly suggested changing patrol deployment. In the latest audit, in June 2002, the state wrote: "We recommended that patrol officers be deployed to work shifts consistent with the workload demands. It is clear that this could only be accomplished if obstacles impeding the efforts of management to modify the work hours and shift schedules were removed from officers' collective bargaining agreement."

Given Morgan Quitno's ranking of Camden as most dangerous city in the country for 2003, a six-page contract renewal that doesn't address officer deployment is unacceptable. National Uniform Crime Report data show an increase in crime in Camden 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.

Currently, the department rotates patrol officers to a new time shift every week. This means that officers do not have an opportunity to focus on lowering crime in the same location at the same time over a period of time. This is unheard of around the country. Every urban department that we have contacted - including Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark, Washington, New York, Cincinnati, Nashville and Richmond - uses steady work shifts. Rotating work shifts is also unhealthy for the officers. It's like having jet lag every week.

Where does chief operating officer Randy Primas stand on the issue? With the Camden recovery plan in place, the power is in his hands to fix this issue. Please call Mr. Primas' office at 856-757-7671 or fax to 856-968-4787 and ask him to amend the Camden Police Department contract to create steady work shifts. For more information on this issue, contact us at steadyshifts@mac.com or visit our blog at http://camdenpublicsafety.blogspot.com/.

Jeffrey Brenner
The Rev. Bob McDermott
Cochairs, Working Group on Public Safety
Alliance for the Revitalization of Camden City

Sharon Miller
Chair
Camden City Public Safety Council