The Democratic mayors of Chicago, Baltimore, Cleveland and yes, Newark, got together to let everyone know how they are reducing crime in their cities. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the key is preparation.
“We do various things that I think are different, imaginative, we’re getting better and better at it, and make sure we put systems in place, cause we will have spikes, you will have incidents, you will have issues,” he said. “The difference between now and then is that you have the systems in place to respond to those spikes.”
When Baraka referred to “then” he meant 2010, before these systems were in place — such as more summer programs for young people, including a summer academy for the most disaffected youth, which they are paid to attend.
The mayors are leading the charge to make their cities safer even as the Trump administration proposes cuts to public safety funding.
“It’s just like having flood remediation in your city, or flood mitigation in your city,” he said. “It’s not gonna stop heavy rain, not gonna stop flooding from happening, but it will save lives. And that’s exactly what this does, it’s an infrastructure you put in place to help save lives.”
One key aspect of Newark’s infrastructure is the community violence intervention organizations, which focus on the areas with the most crime.
In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott says recruiting and keeping police has been a problem, as it has in many other places in the US. But he said things are turning around.
“We’re at a good spot now,” he said. “Our academy classes are a lot larger in size than they used to be but then we’re also doing some innovative things, our police department restarted our cadet program, we’re gonna be pulling young people straight from our high schools.” He said recruitment is now outpacing attrition for the first time in a long time.