Whipped Cream Difficulties

I think everyone knows Camden, New Jersey is a troubled city.

The police acknowledge that they have all but ceded these streets to crime, with murders on track to break records this year.

What to do, what to do?

Answer: burn it to the ground and start over.

…in November, Camden, which has already had substantial police layoffs, will begin terminating the remaining 273 officers and give control to a new county force. The move, officials say, will free up millions to hire a larger, nonunionized force of 400 officers to safeguard the city, which is also the nation’s poorest.

More:

Though the city is solidly Democratic, the plan to put the Police Department out of business has not prompted the wide public outcry seen in the union battles in Chicago, Ohio or Wisconsin, in part because many residents have come to resent a police force they see as incompetent, corrupt and doing little to make their streets safe.

So I’m wondering where people think the Camden PD officers are going? Do they really think these “incompetent, corrupt, and doing little” officers aren’t going to wind up as part of the new county force? It isn’t just a question of politics: where is the new force supposed to get 400 trained officers from, if not from the pool of existing officers who aren’t currently working?

Camden’s budget was $167 million last year, and of that, the budget for the police was $55 million. Yet the city collected only $21 million in property taxes. It has relied on state aid to make up the difference, but the state is turning off the spigot.

More:

For example, officers earn an additional 4 percent for working a day shift, and an additional 10 percent for the shift starting at 9:30 p.m. They earn an additional 11 percent for working on a special tactical force or an anticrime patrol.

I’m going to have to propose that to my boss. “Hey, boss. I’d like an extra four percent for working my normal 8-5 shift. How about it?” (My company actually does pay a night shift differential.)

Salaries range from about $47,000 to $81,000 now, not including the shift differentials or additional longevity payments of 3 percent to 11 percent for any officer who has worked five years or more. Officials say they anticipate salaries for the new force will range from $47,000 to $87,000.

Before: $47,000 to $81,000. After: $47,000 to $87,000. This is the kind of thinking that has gotten us to where we are today: nimble-footed sprinters on the treadmill of life. (Tne NYT is unclear as to whether the “after” includes shift differentials and the special incentives.)

And liberal sick time and family-leave policies have created an unusually high absentee rate: every day, nearly 30 percent of the force does not show up. (A typical rate elsewhere is in the single digits.)

And:

Under labor law, the current contract will remain in effect if the new county force hires more than 49 percent of the current officers. So county officials say they will hire fewer than that. Nevertheless, they expect that the new force will eventually become unionized.

I see. So they can hire up to 49% of the current Camden officers. 49% of 400 is 196. The current Camden PD has 273 officers. Interesting numbers there.

There seems to be no question that Lieu Tran had problems. Specifically, bipolar disorder.

Mr. Tran was a math teacher at a local high school. In April of 2011, he was told his contract wasn’t going to be renewed. This sent Mr. Tran into a downward spiral; he contacted a friend and told that friend he’d been having “scary thoughts about shooting his supervisors”. The friend gave him a ride to a mental hospital.

At the hospital, Tran repeated the thoughts to an admissions nurse, who testified that Tran cried, got into the fetal position and punched himself in the head during her interview with him. The nurse said she called an Austin police officer.

Mr. Tran engaged in a discussion with the APD officer later that day. He spent a week in the hospital, “having his medication adjusted and participating in group therapy”.

After he was released, he was arrested by APD and charged with “retaliation”, based on what APD considered to be his threats to “buy a firearm, tying up [Assistant Principal Sheila] Reed and [Principal Daniel] Garcia, shooting them in the arm and leg and making them watch him kill their families”.

The case went to trial this week. Today, the judge threw out Mr. Tran’s statements to the police officer:

[State District Judge Mike] Lynch ruled that because of Tran’s mental state, the statements to the officer could not be used against him at his trial, citing a Texas law that requires such statements be given voluntarily.

Without the statements, the state had no case, and the prosecution dismissed the charges.

That seems like the right thing to do. Now. But the right thing to do a year ago would have been not to bring charges.

Look, I understand Tran’s behavior might have been scary. But he sought help. He didn’t act on his impulses. He knew he had a problem and voluntarily committed himself. What were the APD and the Travis County DA thinking when they brought charges against a man who did the right thing? And did they even think about what impact this would have on other people facing similar situations?

Ewell Hunt, the former sheriff of Franklin County, Virginia, has been convicted of “misconduct by an elected official”. Mr. Hunt has been fined $500 and given a 30-day suspended jail sentence.

Former sheriff Hunt’s conviction stems from the murder of Jennifer Agee by her ex-husband, deputy Jonathan Agee. I’ve touched on this case previously here and here.