Camden (NJ) - America's 2004 Most Dangerous City - What's Next?
It has been quite a time since Camden (NJ) picked up its infamous background reputation. Camden (NJ) is the location where in 1949 an unemployed Howard Unruh killed 13 persons in 12 minutes, thus becoming America's first single-episode mass murderer of modern times and setting the sad record of killing as many people in as little time. Had he succeeded in killing everyone he shot at from his 9 mm Luger, the number of corpses would have totaled 26.
The 2004 edition of City Crime Rankings, an annual reference book of crime statistics and rankings by Morgan Quitno Press, ranked Camden, New Jersey as the nation’s highest crime rate city, up from the third place in 2003.
The research was based upon the final 2003 crime statistics released by the FBI. The rankings took into account a city’s crime rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. Camden had an increase in every category of crime in 2003. Specifically, the murder rate was cited as 51.2 per 100,000, almost 9 times the national average of 5.7, making Camden #3 in this category behind DC and Baltimore. The survey compared 354 cities with the population starting from 75,000 residents.
According to the 2000 census, there are 79,904 people, 24,177 households, and 17,431 families residing in the city. 35.5% of the population and 32.8% of families are living below the poverty line. "We must give our people jobs, training and opportunity," said City Council Member Ali Sloan-El, referring to Camden's poverty as the most important factor feeding its high crime rate along with poor education and unemployment. Prosecutor's Office spokesman Bill Shralow pointed out Camden is one of the country's poorest cities.
Anyway, the year 2005 inspires valid hopes for the public safety improvement. From January to March 2005, crime in Camden decreased 24 percent, and this astounding figure provides more reason for the community optimism today than ever before.
City officials announced that steps had already been taken towards dealing with the crime reduction issue in the manner that is expected to deliver positive results. A proven aggressive crime-fighting technique called "crime mapping" is right in the process of being implemented in Camden. Newark, the other former violent crime rate leader in America that started off with similar project in 1996 was able to experience an impressive 43 percent reduction in reported crime as quickly as by 1998. There's no reason doubting the same pattern could work for Camden too.
As for the prospects of fighting poverty, according to the other survey "Top 25 Cities to Do Business in America for Entrepreneurs" conducted by Inc. Magazine early in 2004, the city of Camden had been ranked #6 out of 277 biggest cities. "A tremendous amount of private funds still are earmarked for the city, something virtually unheard of before last year", remarks South Jersey's CourierPostOnline.
But can police enforcement and investments really be enough to resolve the crime problem? "Camden police expect to make 10,000 arrests this year, which most likely won't even make a dent in the problem. Development may only yield long-term improvements, and for now, the police are simply not getting the job done", believes Jacqueline D’Ercole who writes for Temple News, published by the student community of Temple University, Philadelphia PA. She reasons immediate results could be seen only if those who are closest to the crime take an active role in fighting it.
The Philadephia resident anxiety is understandable, for it takes just a bridge across the Delaware river to come from Camden to Philadelphia.
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