(Camden, NJ) – On Thursday, the Camden County Commissioners announced that the Woodlynne Police Department will disband because of a severe staffing shortage and the Camden County Police Department will start policing the small municipality. After years of oversight by the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, the borough agency will disband, and the governing body will work with the Commissioners to create a smooth transition for patrols to start in the coming weeks.
According to a letter from Edwin Ramos, the director of public safety for the borough, to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, by October the Woodlynne Police Department “will be operating with only a total of four officers to patrol, supervise and maintain training working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, leaving the police department unsustainable to provide police services for the residents, visitors and a safety issue for the officers who remain.”
The Commissioners will work with the Borough Council to assess the needs of the municipality to ensure they have proper police coverage for the 2,900 residents and businesses throughout the .22 square mile borough. At this time, the current department does not have the manpower or the infrastructure in place to continue to operate as an accredited organization after September 1.
Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr., liaison to the Camden County Police Department, talked about the need to support the unsustainable operation.
“Ironically, this is why we originally formed the Camden County Police Department in 2013 because of the failure of the Collingswood PD and Woodlynne PD shared service agreement in 2009,” Cappelli said. “Today we have agreed to assist Woodlynne and support them in providing sustainable policing services that the taxpayers in the town deserve and ensure that we are providing a well-trained agency that is committed to building community and focused on engagement with residents.”
Chris Winters, president of the Camden County Association of Chiefs of Police, explained how the consolidation is the best choice to ensure the community has a strong, dependable law enforcement agency in the borough.
“The Camden County Association of Chiefs of Police has provided support and assistance to the Woodlynne Police Department over the years to create a viable law enforcement agency,” Winters said. “Nevertheless, with the significant shortage of manpower and the challenges that it presents to the community the best solution for sustainable law enforcement presence is for the consolidation of services with a neighboring law enforcement agency, in this situation the Camden County Police Department. As an association we are committed to providing Chief Rodriguez any support and assistance needed during the transition process.”
In addition to the letter by the public safety director and the preliminary assessment by Camden County Police Department, the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police did an independent evaluation of the borough’s agency. In this report, five key areas were evaluated which were current department status-audits, police operations, police officer training, police station security & evidence/property and the police department rules, regulations, policies and procedures. Through this evaluation, it became clear that deficiencies and shortfalls were rampant throughout the agency.
Evaluations
According to the report, several officers advised that they had never been evaluated on their performance and those conducting the report were unable to find any officer evaluations.
Training
Policing is a profession that requires significant training and retraining, and the NJ Attorney General’s Office mandates in service training for all officers in a minimum of seven different subjects after they receive their Basic Course for Police Officer certification or their Special Law Enforcement Officer certification. At the Woodlynne Police Department, it was found that 2021 was the last year on record for any training of any Woodlynne officer.
School Security and Safety
The report states that there was no evidence of a school security or safety program established at the department and that the superintendent “advised that she does not even know who oversees the police department.”
Investigative function
The department’s investigative function was also compromised because the officer who was responsible for investigations also had patrol duties, rendering the investigative responsibility as “an afterthought,” according to the report.
Inventory Control
Inventory control reports were also unavailable for each officer’s uniform and equipment as well as an ammunition audit for each officer and vehicle that is in service, which is a standing order from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office. The author of the report wrote “I don’t believe this has ever been done in Woodlynne Borough.”
Crime Data Analysis
It was also apparent through this report that the department lacked any proactive crime data analysis, which involves identifying patterns and trends in criminal activity that is used to guide patrol and investigations. According to the report, “this can be accomplished at this department, but it does not seem to be a priority.”
Evidence/property
The security of evidence and property has been “grossly ignored,” at the Woodlynne Police Department with evidence at the time of the report sitting in a temporary mailbox without any digital documentation, according to the report. The system was also handwritten, did not contain the required proof of chain of custody and in an audit conducted by the CCPO Special Prosecutions Unit in November 2023, it was “revealed that evidence and property is being stored in several different places and is not properly secured.”
The report goes on to chronicle significant deficiencies in all aspects of policing, but overall, it says the “Woodlynne Police Department is experiencing a crisis in all the identified critical areas.”
Camden County Chief Gabriel Rodriguez talked about the process and assessment period.
“At this current juncture we are working with the existing officers, borough officials and council to determine what the needs of the community are, and we are preparing to be ready to start assisting with supplemental patrols on September 1,” Rodriguez said. “Moving forward we will be consolidating the borough’s existing officers into our operation and the three officers they have in the Monmouth County Police Academy to move forward.”
With this consolidation, the Camden County Police Department will be able to provide a level of service that has long been missing in Woodlynne. Residents will have the ability to get to know the command staff and utilize technology to speak with law enforcement that would never exist in the current department. Furthermore, the borough would be the beneficiary of getting a police department that uses community policing first, which has had a proven track record of success in Camden City. Furthermore, the department was the first in the state to change its use of force guidelines to ensure that if force needs to be used it will only be used as a last resort. The CCPD, which places community policing at the center of its public safety approach, has managed to reduce violent crime in Camden City by more than 45% and homicides by almost 70% since 2012.
“The CCPD has drastically transformed the city of Camden and we are confident that with this consolidation, things can turn around in Woodlynne as well,” Cappelli continued. “This is a large undertaking but one that we deem as necessary for the wellbeing of the Woodlynne community, and we are confident that this will be a step in a positive direction.”