NEWARK VIOLENT CRIME STATS DOWN, BUT ACLU CONCERNED ABOUT INTERNAL AFFAIRS
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Newark - (WBGO News 1/7/2009)

Advances in crime scene technology, the introduction of surveillance cameras and coordination among city, county and state officials are credited for the decline in violent crime. Newark’s Police Director Garry McCarthy says the city had 162 less shooting victims since 2006. 

“Let me repeat that because these aren’t statistics, these are people. 162 less persons shot in this city. At the same time, there were forty less murders.”

However, Deborah Jacobs from New Jersey’s A-C-L-U says it’s not time to celebrate just yet. She says their internal affairs unit doesn’t include pending cases from previous years in their statistics and lack an external monitor. She says the process of filing a complaint can be intimidating when the only way to do so is in person.  

“To say that the numbers are reduced when you have wonky officials' statistics and no real outreach is misleading the public about the success.”

Police Director McCarthy says they doubled the size of the unit since 2006 and complaints against his officers have dropped 21 percent.

© 1/7/2009 WBGO News