By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Deep layoffs of city workers go into effect on Tuesday – cutting up to 383 jobs, or one-fourth of the city’s employees. ….. Worst case, the layoffs could slash half the police force and one-third of the fire department for this city just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Practically every other job in the city is likely to be affected.
“The fear quotient has been raised,” said the Rev. Heyward Wiggins, pastor of Camden Bible Tabernacle…. ..His Fellowship Choir of adults from their 20s to their 50s, used to practice on Thursday or Friday evenings. Now, Wiggins said, he’s moving rehearsals to Sunday after worship services because members are afraid of being out after dark when the police force is cut.
Camden, rampant with open drug-dealing, prostitution and related crimes, was the nation’s second-most-dangerous city based on 2009 data, according to CQ Press, which compiles such rankings. Camden ranked first the previous two years. The FBI said that in 2009, the city had 2,380 violent crimes per 100,000 residents – more than five times the national average.
Police Chief Scott Thomson has not made details of the cuts public, but has said the department will be reconfigured so that patrols won’t be reduced. …. The anti-crime volunteer group Guardian Angels also says it will patrol Camden, as it has Newark, where there were major police layoffs in November.
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