New Jersey State Police are being deployed to Baltimore, adding more boots on the ground to quell violent protests following the funeral of Freddie Gray — a 25-year-old black man who died while in police custody. NJTV’s new correspondent Erin Delmore covered the powder keg that ignited in Ferguson, Missouri last summer as a field reporter for MSNBC. Today she was at the state police Barracks in Cranbury.
“It’s a limited deployment. Only 150 state troopers are headed to Baltimore. One hundred of them will help with operational support, the other 50 are civilians and enlisted officers who will help with investigations. They’re expected to stay for about 72 hours, perhaps longer,” Delmore said.
Last night on his monthly radio show “Ask the Governor,” Chris Christie cited the Camden regional county force and community policing as a step in the right direction. Delmore says the program is working well with officers trying to become more present in the communities they protect.
“Only 100 miles away from Baltimore, police officers in Camden are working on a community outreach approach to policing. May 1 will make the two-year anniversary of their new police department which is run out of the county rather than just the city. There’s also a greater number of officers truly focusing on engaging with the community. They’re holding pick-up basketball games, they’re at school library functions, they’re holding picnics, they’re bringing K9 dogs to schools to try to meet the people in the communities where they serve,” Delmore said.