Recently, Mayor Baraka, Dr. Robert Johnson, Dean of Rutgers University Medical School, along with Todd Clear, Provost at Rutgers University—Newark and previous Chancellor and Dean of the School of Criminal Justice, and Anthony Ambrose, Director of Public Safety for the City of Newark convened a group of press and community stakeholders at the Rutgers Law building to reveal the findings of a recent independent assessment by the Safer Newark Council of the current status of safety in Newark and solutions to safety issues currently facing the City.
Per the analysis, and for the record, Newark is NOT a war zone.
As much as mainstream media tends to spin a narrative to the contrary, most of the residents and neighborhoods in Newark rarely experience crime and violence in the city. Violent crime is consistently focused in certain areas of the city, and generally within the timeframe of 4pm – 2am. Mayor Baraka spoke to the need to focus fighting crime in the areas where crime is most prevalent. As an effective approach to solve the crime and violence that does exist in certain pockets of the city, the administration needs to look beyond immediate response to incidents and incorporate a long-term response. “Frequently, when we react to headlines, we don’t find a strategy that works,” said Dr. Johnson.
The Safer Newark Council first began to gather community stakeholders, academics, public safety administrators, and other City and State officials in Oct 2014, althought the data that was used in research goes back to 2008. As a result of the dialogue, research, and analysis, there are 35 current initiatives underway in Newark to address public safety. It was concluded that the need was not for more action, but for coordination and comprehensive strategies that include multiple community partners.
The study also revealed that for the most part, Newark’s overall crime rate is not out of line with similar cities in the country. Newark is, however, set apart by a high rate of murders and robberies. As far as statistics go, the goal for implementing the proposed solutions of the Safer Newark Council is to bring the crime rate down 20% by 2020.
The data also revealed that known homicide and non-fatal shooting motives are highest among drug-related incidents, personal disputes, and robberies gone bad. A significant number of robberies were committed by people less than24 years of age, however less than 4% of crime is committed by juveniles.
Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose made it plainly clear, “We cannot arrest our way out of the high crime rate in the City.” More comprehensive strategies are required and the City has already seen the effectiveness of programs like the Newark Community Street Team and the West Ward Victim Outreach. These programs are more community based and especially effective in building the trust of the community and addressing simmering tensions between residents before a crime occurs.
Proper and effective use of the police force has been a challenge at times as there have been some high profile violent crimes lately, particularly the murder of a Rutgers student in his apartment, and the robbery and murder of an NJIT student in his dorm room that resulted in public outcry and demand for more police presence in the University Heights neighborhood. Mayor Baraka spoke to the tragedy of those incidents, and added the bird’s eye perspective of what that knee-jerk response does to render the police force less effective to combat crime in other neighborhoods that suffer almost daily from violent crime, particularly the South and West wards.
The Safer Newark Council will be releasing a report one year from now on the new findings of their research, including the new data related to the results of the implementation of their proposed solutions.
