I live and work in Camden, the New Jersey city that disbanded and rebuilt its police force. We’ve been upheld as a model for cities like Minneapolis, but there’s a lot more to the story.

After Camden, New Jersey, rebuilt its police department, crime stats declined — but there’s more to the story, writes Keith E. Benson, a Camden resident and educator. 
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The evening of June 7, I received a direct tweet from Michael Leo Owens, professor of political science at Emory University, that read, “So many [eyes] gonna be looking to Camden for predictions re Minneapolis.”

I didn’t believe it. I was slightly amused that Camden would ever be suggested as an exemplar of “successful” policing for any city, but especially Minneapolis, whose City Council recently said it would abolish the embattled police department following the widely viewed killing of George Floyd.

Sure enough, Owens was correct in his prediction: No less than 12 hours after I read his tweet, I saw a slew of media outlets hailing Camden’s County Police Department as a potential model for urban locales experiencing conflicts between their residents and police READ MORE...