By David Cruz
Correspondent
Representing close to three quarters of a million people, the mayors of the state’s three largest cities have human and economic resources that they can bring to bear to face down big city problems, none bigger than public safety, an issue that continues to dog their efforts at community development. Today — with help from the Police Institute at Rutgers — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, along with Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop and Paterson Mayor Jose Torres began the process of putting their heads together.
“All these mayors here have a common problem and that common problem is criminal activity, violence, murder, drugs, gang activity in their city and we very seldom get an opportunity to sit down and talk to each other,” Baraka said.
For a first meeting — officially an urban mayor’s Roundtable on Public Safety — it was an impressive collection of law enforcement and government from as far south as Camden and including Trenton, the Oranges, Perth Amboy and others. The conference included academic discussions on urban public safety strategies, but, more importantly, gave officials an opportunity to meet face-to-face.
“Public safety doesn’t stop at city boundaries and almost all of the public safety issues that each of these cities face transfers from one location to another,” said Rutgers-Newark Provost Todd Clear.
One of the common threads, literally, that ties Newark, Jersey City and Paterson together is the Route 21 corridor, which allows criminal gangs convenient access to one another and a means to move between jurisdictions.
“The state police and our offices have been engaged in looking at the Route 21 corridor for quite a while. Again, the geography is the issue and also, I think with the advance of technology just as well-meaning people communicate more, also people intent on crime can communicate through social media and other means,” said Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray.
“And now we have the tools, we’re going to give the law enforcement community the tools that they need so that way we can start fighting crime on an aggressive basis, on a regional basis,” said Torres.
Mayor Fulop, whose city is experiencing unprecedented growth, admits that he has had difficulty tackling crime in his inner city, where the murder of a rookie police officer this summer exposed economic and cultural fissures.
“There is a whole generation of children that are actually parents and they are totally disengaged and virtually impossible to reach is what I’m finding and we can put all these programs into the schools, and try the psychology and the social workers and we’re still not reaching them,” Fulop said.
It won’t be easy, but there is strength in numbers and three new mayors who say they’re up to the task.
The mayors say this was no mere photo op. They say today was about genuine work and the beginning of a partnership that must yield results because no one — mayors, police or residents — has any time to waste.