Crime-Ridden New Jersey City Busts Police Union To Save Money

Think Progress:

A New Jersey city often described as the most dangerous in the country will no longer have its own police force, as a crunched state budget has intensified an effort to reduce costs by busting the local police union. Camden, New Jersey ranks among the most crime-ridden cities in America — in 2008, it had the nation’s highest crime rate — and this year, it is on pace to set a national record for shootings and murders.

The city, however, will lay off its entire police force by the end of the year. Law enforcement duties will instead fall to a newly established division of the county police force. Unlike Camden’s city police, the county department is not unionized, and though roughly half of the city’s police officers will transition to the county department, they will lose their collective bargaining rights. The changes, Camden police officials say, is an attack on the police union, FoxNews.com reports:

“This is definitely a form of union-busting,” Camden Fraternal Order of Police President John Williamson told FoxNews.com. “This method is unproven and untested, to put your faith in an agency that doesn’t even [yet] exist.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) endorsed the plan to transition Camden’s police to county control and specifically mentioned contract disputes in a recent speech. “A county police force that has a reasonable contract, and that’s going to provide a huge increase in the number of police officers on the streets here in Camden, is a win for everybody,” Christie said at a recent event at Rutgers-Camden University, where he signed a reform bill for higher education. “I’m willing to put my name on the line for this concept.”