Acting Attorney General John Hoffman told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he is pleased with the results of the Fugitive Safe Surrender Program and the Gun Buyback Program so far in New Jersey.
The Fugitive Safe Surrender Program allows fugitives to deal with their cases in a court-like setting, but in places such as churches, where they will feel safer. Hoffman said, “People are dealing with their situation.”
Hoffman said that most commonly the people coming in for this program have outstanding warrants for failure to appear in court, failure to pay items such as parking fines. He said that the program was created for safety purposes.
“This program began back in Cleveland when an officer was shot and killed in the process of trying to apprehend a fugitive. Left behind a wife, three children. Over the course of the last five years, we did a study and 46 officers from around the country were killed, simply in the process of trying to apprehend a fugitive,” said Hoffman.
This program makes it safer for the officers and for the fugitives because many of the fugitives were reacting in fear and hurting officers. The church gives the fugitives a place where they will feel safe and will not react in violence towards officers, Hoffman said.
Hoffman said that the results from the program have been good so far, as well as the results for the Gun Buyback Program.
The Gun Buyback Program gives people the opportunity to return their guns. This is in hopes to lower the violence and murder rate in cities.
Hoffman said, “In the past six weeks, there has only been one murder in Trenton. Prior to that, it seemed like there was one once every third, every fourth day. Clearly the strategies of urban violence prevention are working.”