Experts: Camden will feel layoffs

In the first week after layoffs cut the Camden Police Department nearly in half, predictions of doom and gloom and outlaws running wild in the streets have remained just that - predictions.

But experts in law enforcement say there's no way a city like Camden can avoid feeling the impact of the massive layoffs, which also included about one-third of the city's firefighters.

"You can't police the same way you did with half the police force," said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit think tank in Washington.

Wexler and others interviewed last week said cutbacks and layoffs tied to economic problems had occurred in departments throughout the country.

But, Wexler said, "there is no department that I know of [facing the kind of crime in Camden] that has lost half of their police force."

"There is always a need to have some sort of balance between reactive and proactive policing," said Maki Haberfeld, a professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. But "when you're losing that many officers . . . this balance goes out the window."

As the city moves into week two of the layoffs, statistical data to assess the impact are scant. There has been no crime wave, no uptick in assaults, shootings, or the other mayhem that have branded Camden a city on the brink.

But that hasn't stopped experts from worrying.

"For a reasonable-sized city, this is one of the most catastrophic law enforcement stories in the country," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of law and police studies at John Jay College.

Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson has said he and others have developed a plan that they believe will provide necessary police services. The plan involves, among other things, taking officers off desk jobs so more than 90 percent of the force is on the street.

Meanwhile, City Hall and the unions representing the police and firefighters continue to discuss contract changes and cost savings that could bring back at least some of those let go on Tuesday.

Mayor Dana L. Redd described the layoffs as part of an attempt to bridge the city's $26.5 million budget deficit.

The Police Department lost 168 of its 365 officers. The Fire Department lost 67 of its 220 firefighters. More than 100 other city workers were also let go.