CAMDEN, N.J. — Two gruesome murders of children last month served as reminders of this city’s reputation as the most dangerous in America<http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20091124/NEWS01/911240338/Report-ranks-Camden-most-dangerous-U-S-city>. Others can be found along the blocks of row houses spray-painted “R.I.P.,” empty liquor bottles clustered on their porches in memorial to murder victims.
The police acknowledge that they have **all but ceded these streets to crime, with murders on track to break records this year**. And now, in a **desperate move to regain control, city officials are planning to disband the Police Department**.
The reason, officials say, is that **generous union contracts have made it financially impossible to keep enough officers on the street**. So 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.
Hardly a political battle of the last several years has been fiercer than the one over the fate of public sector unions. But Camden’s decision to **remake perhaps the most essential public service** for a city riven by crime underscores how **communities are taking previously unimaginable steps** to **get out from under union obligations** that built up over generations.
--- FC -- During times of Universal Deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act - George Orwell