Police Hampered by Public Mistrust and “Barney Miller”-Era Technology
Consider the following report:
“I don’t know what frustrates me more. … These knuckleheads killing each other, or the residents who won’t cooperate with my officers.â€
That lack of cooperation — steeped in public mistrust that has been simmering at a low boil … and fueled by hip-hop culture’s “stop snitching†mantra — is among the major roadblocks … to curb the lawlessness here. …
They are fighting a war with a 1,250-member army plagued by low morale and “Barney Millerâ€-era technology, with a shortage of patrol cars, lockers, computers and bullet-resistant vests. The battlefields are drug-drenched, gun-riddled neighborhoods like the Fifth’s South Ward, where unemployment is rampant, teenagers steal cars out of boredom, and officers are routinely called to the same addresses to deal with violent family disputes.
Complicating the situation is the department’s own legacy of scandal and a patronage system that elevated inept officers and drove embittered veterans into better-paying jobs in neighboring towns.
The story reads like it was written in New Orleans. It wasn’t. It’s a New York Times story about Newark, NJ.
