Crime-Ravaged Camden, N.J., Scraps Police Department To Save Money

By Abby Rogers
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/08/27/crime-ravaged-camden-nj-scraps-police-department-to-save-money/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3&pLid=197585
A New Jersey city that reported a murder rate of 46.8 per 100,000 people in 2010 is now without a police department.

Camden, N.J., often dubbed the most dangerous city in the country, is disbanding its police department in a bid to shave millions of dollars off the annual budget, FoxNews.com reported Sunday. The department will be replaced with the non-union "Metro Division" of the Camden County Police, which police unions in the area say is "definitely a form of union-busting."

Forty-nine percent of officers currently employed by the city will be transferred to the new division. Those who are not transferred "are going to have to be the ones who train their replacements," Camden Fraternal Order of Police President John Williamson told FoxNews.com.

The state has been in charge of Camden's police department since 2005 when then-governor Gwendolyn Faison asked the state to take over.

Gov. Chris Christie has supported the new organizational structure, saying it will actually increase the number of police officers on the streets.

Williamson said that his organization was willing to make compensation concessions to avoid dissolution of the department. But he was shut down.

"We tried to give them what they wanted, but they asked that we drop all and any lawsuits that officers have against the city," Williamson told FoxNews.com.