Are you going to have another plan in 6 months?
Inside, New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram was unveiling the latest law-enforcement plan aimed at making Camden - twice named America's most-dangerous city - safe.
Milgram's plan starts at the top, with Camden Deputy Chief Scott Thomson, a 14-year department veteran, taking the helm as chief, and the appointment of a new civilian Police Director in Louis Vega, a former deputy to Miami Police Chief John Timoney, a former Philadelphia top cop.
Thomson and Vega will be in charge of overhauling the department, of requiring nearly all of the city's 414 officers to be out on patrols, and of aggressively targeting crime and problem areas.
"This plan will work," Milgram said.
She said that the Camden Community Safety Initiative will more than triple the number of officers on the streets. They'll be supplemented with state police helicopters, a so-called Comp-Stat (collecting and analyzing enforcement data) program designed to help police map high-crime areas, and more technology such as laptops for patrol cars.
The key, Milgram said, is for the department to become more active than reactive.
"Today we had our 34th homicide and 100th shooting," she said. "Despite our best efforts, the rate of violence is alarming. Doing more of the same is not an option."
While some major crimes, such as aggravated assault and robbery are down, overall crime in Camden is up more than 8 percent from this time last year. Rapes have increased more than 50 percent, and murders are at a record pace.
Thomson, 36, said that he plans to work with Vega, Milgram and surrounding law-enforcement agencies to make the plan succeed.
"My mission isn't going to be to do it, it's going to be 'follow me,' " said the married father of two.
Vega, 64, was raised in the South Bronx and spent 30 years with the NYPD. He admitted that he hasn't had much time to get to know Camden, but said that making the city safer isn't an insurmountable task.
"This department has what is necessary to get the job done," he said.
Thomson replaces Chief Edward Hargis, who resigned July 18, after less than six months, for a job in the private sector.
Yesterday's announcement marked the sixth change in leadership of the Camden cops since the Attorney General's Office began monitoring the department in 2003.
Back outside, Ronald Evans and representatives from Camden Churches Organized for People said that Hargis and Carmelo Huertas Jr., former civilian police director, had just been starting to rebuild the department's relationship with the community.
The church group, which claimed that it wasn't allowed into Milgram's news conference, questioned whether another regime change and the latest in a series of anti-crime initiatives would make inroads.
"We've had so many plans before," said Evans, a lifelong resident. "Only time will tell if this plan works. God knows I hope it will."
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