Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 03 2017, @08:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Camden, New Jersey is a very low income neighborhood. According to this NY Times article, until recently it had typical low income policing--heavy on corruption and violence and low on compassion.

But now they have a new chief and things have changed --

"Handing a $250 ticket to someone who is making $13,000 a year" — around the per capita income in the city — "can be life altering," Chief Thomson said in an interview last year, noting that it can make car insurance unaffordable or result in the loss of a driver's license. "Taxing a poor community is not going to make it stronger."

Handling more vehicle stops with a warning, rather than a ticket, is one element of Chief Thomson's new approach, which, for lack of another name, might be called the Hippocratic ethos of policing: Minimize harm, and try to save lives.

Officers are trained to hold their fire when possible, especially when confronting people wielding knives and showing signs of mental illness, and to engage them in conversation when commands of "drop the knife" don't work. This sometimes requires backing up to a safer distance. Or relying on patience rather than anything on an officer's gun belt.

While not out of the woods yet, it sounds like there is hope for Camden and maybe it won't just continue to be written off as a war zone.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @10:59PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @10:59PM (#488429)

    The other 48 percent sees it as what's right.

    That 4 percent left over is 1 percent ruling class, 2 percent IDGAF, 0.9 percent stoners, and 0.1 percent suitcase packers :)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @09:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 04 2017, @09:00PM (#488821)

    The other 48 percent sees it as what's right.

    That 4 percent left over is 1 percent ruling class, 2 percent IDGAF, 0.9 percent stoners, and 0.1 percent suitcase packers :)

    That adds up to 102%, friend. I'm glad you decided to include all the illegals who voted for Hillary Clinton!