Layoffs could soon make Camden even more dangerous

Tuesday could be another dark date etched onto the timeline of Camden's slow demise or just another setback on its rise to stability.

Barring last-minute negotiations or unlikely heroics from the state, a city considered one of the country's most dangerous will lose 160 to 170 police officers - half its department - and the fire department could lose about 70 firefighters because of a crushing $26.5 million budget gap.

"Unfortunately, in the city of Camden, we're always facing one crisis after another. It's either crime or drugs or gangs or poverty or something else," said Councilman William Spearman, a lifelong city resident. "I must admit, this is one of the more difficult situations I've ever seen in my lifetime."

Many of those laid-off officers will walk from the city's Fraternal Order of Police Lodge Tuesday, possibly with a bagpipe brigade, to hand in their gear at the Police Administration Building down the street. In June, 50 new officers walked the city's streets as Mayor Dana Redd and Chief Scott Thomson expressed the importance of each uniformed body to the city.

Police administrators declined to comment on the layoffs this week, and Redd's spokesman, Robert Corrales, said the mayor and her administration have been willing and waiting to talk with union officials. Regardless, he said, public safety in Camden, named the nation's second most dangerous city last year, would not be compromised.

"At the end of the day, we're still going to have police officers on the street. We're still going to be doing our job," Corrales said. "We're going to patrol the streets."

Sources say the department will switch from three 10-hour shifts to two 12-hour shifts to keep the same number of officers on the street at any given time. Another source said 25 officers called out during one shift yesterday as a protest.

The notion that public safety won't be affected by mass layoffs is laughable, union officials said.

"Unless L-3 Communications [a tech firm in Camden] is building a fleet of robocops they're going to unleash on the city, what can you really do to compensate losing half your police department?" asked John Williamson, president of the Camden Fraternal Order of Police lodge.

The city asked for 20 percent wage reductions, Williamson said, and the FOP countered with an 18-month wage and step pay freeze. The union also agreed to shift changes, furlough days and reducing the ranks through retirement, he said.