Living Here

Overview

Newark and its Police Department are committed to the highest levels of public safety and are driving crime rates in the city to historic lows. Among new, far-reaching initiatives implemented by the city to enhance public safety are:

Quality of Life Strategy

Quality of life violations are being strictly enforced, with rapid deployment in response to citizen complaints and issuances of city ordinance summonses to violators.

Fugitive Apprehension Team

In partnership with Probation, Parole, State Police and Essex County Sheriff, Newark is focusing on apprehending individuals with outstanding warrants for criminal offenses, scofflaw, parole violations and other crimes.

Gang and Narcotics Bureau

With narcotics as the underlying cause of most violence in Newark, the city has established this new bureau with a dedicated commander, supervisory staff and personnel that have undergone specialized training.

Internal Affairs Bureau

To increase efficiency and investigative personnel, this police bureau has been reorganized to focus on three areas of expertise: citizen complaints, corruption and misconduct.

Since June 2006, the Booker Administration committed to building a safer, stronger Newark by successfully:

• Launching and expanding the police helicopter unit.
• Creating the Newark Police Foundation to leverage private contributions.
• Creating the Crime stoppers and Gun stoppers tip lines which have yielded a number of arrests and gun recoveries.
• Creating a functioning public safety camera program, and announcing its expansion and the addition of gunshot detection technology.
• Leveraging an unprecedented amount of interagency cooperation.
• Focusing on systemic problems by addressing ex-offender re-entry and expanding recreation opportunities for youth.
• Increasing the technology available to police officers with a particular emphasis on the arrest process.
• Putting more officers on the streets by streamlining departmental operations and civilianizing certain jobs.