By Dari Kotzker
NJ Today
A running gun battle on the streets of Trenton was caught on surveillance camera back in May. Some residents say they now live in constant terror of gun violence.
“I hear the shots and everything but a friend of mine was actually killed by gun violence. So, I’m really against it all,” said Samantha Hardwick.
Trenton’s logged 31 homicides so far this year compared to 24 all of last year. The dramatic surge in violence prompted New Jersey’s attorney general recently to order state police out into the Trenton streets — troopers on high visibility patrols to help keep the peace. But it’s only a temporary fix. At a recent press conference, Gov. Chris Christie recommended a regional police force, similar to what Camden did, because he says they are seeing positive results.
“I believe that if Trenton wants to really repair its public safety system, that they should look to Camden as a model and that they should look to the Camden county freeholders in Mercer County,” Christie said.
County officials are open to that idea.
“Certainly we’ve had a lot of violence here in the city of Trenton and Mercer County this year. Anything we can do to decrease that we’re willing to talk to the governor’s office about, but this idea of a county police force just for the city of Trenton is a little bit premature I think,” said Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.
The state PBA president said increasing violence is a result of the police layoffs due to city aid cuts and corrupt leadership, not public sector union politics. Trenton’s council president was a city cop for 40 years.
“It doesn’t hurt to look into it, but we lost 109 officers. If we receive 109 officers back, we can do the job we did before. So right now I’m not looking forward to putting in the county police department,” said Trenton Council President George Muschal.
Mayor Tony Mack issued a statement saying, “Trentonians need relief now and we stand by our earlier proposal, whereby the state increases funding so we may hire an additional 75 officers.” That frustrates some city council members.
“To say, ‘No, I’m not willing to listen and I want what we want,’ we’re never gonna get nowhere,” said Councilwoman at Large Phyllis Holly-Ward.
Residents who walk the dangerous streets every day say putting more money into the police department won’t silence the guns.
“It’s not going to stop. Because I mean it’s people without jobs, people who can’t feed families, people that’s not working, people that’s on welfare, so when you have people like that, it’s gonna be conflict,” said Justin Bethea.
Trenton Police Director Ralph Rivera would not comment today. As for next steps, city and county officials have no scheduled meetings with the governor’s office to further discuss this issue.