Christie, residents praise Camden police

CAMDEN (WPVI) -- A little more than a year after the old police force was dissolved and a new county-run agency was created, Governor Chris Christie shook hands with the leaders of the Camden County Police metro division on Tuesday, praising them for the impressive drop in crime they've brought to the state's most dangerous city.

"I talk about it all the time and encourage other cities experiencing similar problems to look at what Camden and the County of Camden have done together to try to make crime fighting more efficient and effective," Christie said.

"Public safety remains our number one priority and we will continue to scale up our operations," Mayor Dana Redd said.

Since last year, overall crime is down 30% in the city, homicides are down 20%, and shootings are down 35%.

"What's more important than the numbers are how people feel. If Miss Jones who lives at Lewis and Lansdowne doesn't feel safe enough to walk to the corner store, those numbers mean nothing," Camden Metro Division Police Chief Scott Thomson said.

But with new technology and more officers on the street Camden's crime problem is improving.

"Used to be, you call today and they come tomorrow. Now, give them 20 minutes," Camden resident Roger Barker said.

"We had two objectives when we started this number: one, reduce the number of crimes number and two, make residents feel safer," Camden County Freeholder Director Lou Cappelli said.

This afternoon in Blackwood 70 more recruits who will join Camden's force graduated from the Camden County police academy. Among them is Cabria Davis, whose father was murdered in Camden in 1994.

"I felt like I was kind of robbed of the relationship with my father so I wanted to, in a way, give back," Officer Davis said.

These new police officers will hit the streets in two weeks bringing the number on the force to just under 400, the highest number on patrol in a decade.