That's it. I want county-wide services, I want an end to anything more than a post-office servicing individual municipalities, and I want 1% property tax rates like I had back in Cali. There is no reason a township as small as my own (weehawken) should have its own freaking police force. And Guttenberg is even smaller! Run it all from Union City -- us, WNY, Guttenberg, North Bergen... Then have Secaucus and Bayonne wrapped up into Jersey City and Kearny and Harrison merged. Voila -- I just halved the government services spending in Hudson County.
And your last sentence there is the exact reason it will never happen, even if it makes complete sense.
Jersey City Targets Teen Drinking on Private Property I'm sure the biggest problem facing Jersey City today is the consumption of alcohol in private homes. Guess there must be no real crime or anything like that. Ridiculous.
Forgive me if I don't agree with you. While I don't agree with the suspension of driving privleges (as the two are not related), I have no problem with a fine for illegal activity. Besides, it's not like the JCPD are gonna be coming into family parties or something like that. Generally, you will have to be disturbing the peace first and then the fines come down. And DTJC is way safe. The crime is neglegable. The rest of the city, however, needs work
I don't either. Except that why is this illegal? Who's being hurt here? Are you suffering if a 20 year old drinks at their place of residence? If they're "disturbing the peace", nail them for that. Our puritanical drinking laws make zero sense.
Well, that I can agree with. Unfortunately as long as the drinking age is 21, JC has every right to enforce the law in whatever way they see fit. IMO there should be no drinking age. As for puritanical laws, at least it's not as bad as all of the stores being closed in Bergen County on Sunday
They may have a "right", but just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean you should. I almost hope real crime goes up as a result of this stupidity. Agreed. It shocks me that is still the case. They should change the county signs on the Parkway to "Bergen County - Closed on Sunday".
http://www.state.nj.us/njsp/info/ucr2005/pdf/2005-sect-9.pdf NJ: 8.7 million people, 21,504 municipal police http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYPD#Organization NYC: 8 million+ people, 35-40,000 NYPD officers "In June 2004, there were about 40,000 sworn officers plus several thousand support staff; In June 2005, that number dropped to 35,000. The NYPD's current authorized uniformed strength is 37,038, which is scheduled to increase to 37,838 in January 2007.
While comparing and contrasting NYC and the Garden State seems reasonable in my neck of the woods, Hunterdon County might not need the same cop : person ratio as The Big Apple. And 21,504 is Municipal police. How many sheriffs deputies, state troopers, etc. does NJ have? Put all of that together, and how many administrations are we talking about to manage that many police officers? NYC has one.
AFAIK, there are many complaints about the reduced size of the NCPD, caused in part by its huge salaries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassau_County_Police_Department#Personnel_issues "In the early 1970s ... nearly 4,200 officers. Since then, it has declined to around 2,600 ... the department's reduced size has been a source of controversy" Nassau County: 1.3 million people, 2,600 police http://www.state.nj.us/njsp/info/ucr2005/pdf/2005-sect-9.pdf Hudson County: 600,000 people, 1,944 police
There are several other police agencies in NYC as well. Put all them together & you still have many more officers than in NJ. Plus, NYC has massive layers of brass, including hundreds of officers above the rank of captain. I spent a career in law enforcement; combining agencies has both good & bad effects. I've seen excellent small town cops, as well as poor big city/big agency police. I know that your local fire department was merged into the North Hudson Regional Fire Dept., supposedly saving a lot of money. OTOH, my neighbor works there & with the 24-hour-on/72-hour-off schedule, he makes $1,200 per tour!
Sorry for the un-Politics Board moment, folks, but I'm going to demure to the expert. jbJ: Do you think such efforts work best in urban (Hudson Co), suburban (Somerset Co) or rural (Sussex Co) areas? Or does it depend more on the political will of locals to make it work?
Demure? I hope you meant defer! I'm not sure if a perfect size for a police agency has been determined. There have been studies focusing on structure, trying to determine how many front line officers are needed, as well as how many supervisors & support staff (detectives, technicians, clerks, etc.). IMO, small teams of well-trained and well-motivated officers work the best. If a large department can consist of dozens or even hundreds of these small units, it can function as well as Sheriff Andy (even with Barney!). Officers need to know their community and the community needs to know & support its officers, for the effort to be successful, whether the beat is one block or 10 square miles, or the unit is a single officer or a team-policing squad. A sense of humor & some discretion are also helpful.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070511/NEWS/70511037 'Meterorite' turns out to be stainless steel 'space junk'. Family doesn't get to cash in!
Some thing for our esteemed colleague, Matt in the Hat. My wife and I will probably be there as well. Garden State Rollergirls Present: Brick City Mayhem: the 2007 Inaugural Season Opener