Residents who believe the city has a crime problem hope to flood this week’s council meeting with hundreds of protesters in an effort to pressure city officials to allocate more resources to the Police Department and programs for youth who are too often the victims and perpetrators of violence.
Over the last few years, Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey have often pointed to crime stats to prove that violent crimes are at a historic low and the city is safer now than it has ever been. Despite the statistics, many residents say they feel unsafe on the streets and in their own homes and point to anecdotal evidence to suggest that many crimes go unreported. The dispute over numbers aside, residents are angry that Healy and members of the City Council haven’t done more to address what they see as a crime problem.
“Jersey City has a crime problem,” said resident Dina Schwartz, the victim of a purse snatching in 2009. “No one wants to call it that. They don’t admit there’s a problem, which is why I think it isn’t being handled. You have to admit you have a problem before you can do something about it.”
More with less
Chief Comey said the city does not have a crime problem. He said some residents perceive there’s a problem, when in fact they are influenced by high-profile crimes that are covered in the local media.
“We’ve been completely transparent with people and we try to educate them about what the numbers are,” said Comey. “Every single month, as soon as the state police certify our Uniform Crime Report numbers, we put them on our web site. But when I go to a block association meeting, I’ll ask, ‘How many homicides were there last year?’ Nobody knows the answer. They’ll come up with an off-the wall-number, and when we educate them on the accurate numbers they’re amazed.”
‘When you don’t have a visible police force, people do not feel safe.’ – Jerry DeCicco
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Comey admits the department has had to do more with less, a fact that residents and some police officers believe has allowed crime in the city to spike.
There are currently 801 police officers in the JCPD. Over the last two years 98 officers have been cut, according to Jerry DeCicco, president of the Police Officers Benevolent Association.
“Having 98 fewer officers on the street has had a direct relationship to the crime,” DeCicco insists. “There is no visible police force out on the street anymore. You have to cut back somewhere. There have been less bicycle patrols on the streets. There are fewer scooter patrols. There are fewer walking posts. We’ve had to reduce our community presence.”
The department, he added, could lose roughly 100 officers by November due to retirement. Another 85 officers will be eligible for retirement by July 2013.
“When you don’t have a visible police force, people do not feel safe,” DeCicco said, adding that Chief Comey is a “very good coach, a good leader. But the administration has given us zero resources.”
30-year low v. ‘underreporting’
Mayor Healy has often taken issue with such assessments.
While the overall size of the department has decreased over the last two years, another 82 officers who were slated to be laid off in 2011 were retained, thanks to a deal between the city and the POBA.
The city has also upgraded its police and fire dispatch operations, investing more than $16 million on a new, centralized dispatch headquarters.
In 2005 and again last summer, the city sponsored two gun buyback programs, dubbed Operation Lifesaver and Operation Lifesaver II, that collectively took about 1,000 firearms off the streets.
Statistically, crime in Jersey City is on a downward trend and both violent and non-violent crimes are at a 30-year low.
But one police officer who did not want to be identified admitted that not every crime is reported and claimed that many nonviolent offenses aren’t tracked in the city’s official crime statistics. Stories from residents bear this out.
Last November, Journal Square resident Akisia Grigsby caught a man and woman having sex in her backyard.
“I called the police after I heard the woman scream. They showed up about an hour later,” said Grigsby, whose 13-year-old son was home at the time and saw part of the incident. “Of course, by then, the woman was gone and the man [who lives nearby] had gone back in his house. I know where he lives and told the police officers I’d point out his house. But they were nonchalant and said, ‘Well, we don’t think you really want us to question your neighbor. That’ll just cause problems between you and your neighbor.’ They told me they can’t handle all the calls that they get. That alarmed me. That made it clear they don’t have enough police. They didn’t even take a report.”
Her mother, who owns a salon and recently installed a buzzer to admit customers, has called the police about drug dealing near her business, to no avail.
‘Acknowledge the problem’
Residents who are angry about crime hope their Wednesday rally will pressure the City Council and Healy administration to prioritize crime-fighting initiatives in the municipal budget. The timing is ripe for such a demand. The administration is currently drafting its 2012 municipal budget, a spending plan that could be introduced next month.
Over the years, the city has had to cut the municipal budget through furloughs and attrition, to address a structural deficit. The city’s 2011 budget was $490 million.
“I don’t want to micromanage the Jersey City Police Department. I don’t think that’s our job,” said resident Esther Wintner, whose son was robbed outside his home last week. “I want our leaders to acknowledge that there is a problem, acknowledge that people are afraid, and then take action to get the police the resources they need to effectively fight crime in this city.”
Rally organizers also plan to ask the city’s leaders to allocate more resources for youth programs to keep idle teens off the streets.
“Right now, there’s nothing here that gives kids a sense of self,” said resident and parent Delores Black. “Kids need outlets where they can go and learn to think creatively, so they’re thinking about something beyond walking around the block or taking the bus to Journal Square.”
Some residents who plan to attend Wednesday’s rally might also advocate for auxiliary police personnel, the launch of a Volunteers in Policing program, and community policing pilots, among other suggestions, organizers said last week.
The Feb. 8 City Council meeting will take place at 6 p.m. at City Hall, located at 280 Grove St. Members of the public who wish to speak during the public comments portion of the meeting must call the city clerk’s office at (201) 547-5150 by 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7 to be added to the speakers’ list.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.