Here are the press conference justificationsfor a consent decree of Newark, NJ, police department:
1) reports don’t give cause for stops. Unconstitutional stops. Illegal arrests
2) pattern of excessive force
3) need for more civilian oversight
4) need for better internal affairs
5) there will be a court-ordered monitor
6) will end after two successful years
I don’t know enough about Newark to comment on the specifics. I’m against illegal policing and unconstitutional policing, just to be clear. But I’m still like to know the track records of consent decrees. Do they work? Do they improve policing? How do we know? What’s the impact on crime?
Newark, NJ, saw 104homicides in 2015. The 2009-2014 average was 95 homicides per year (UCR data).
Of the 585 murders reported to the UCR 2009-214, 87 percent of the victims are African American 12.6 percent are white (which, as one would expect, roughly reflects the racial breakdown of known offenders).
Newark has 280,000 people and is about half black, 26 percent white (12 percent non-hispanic white), 15 percent “other races.” The city is also about one-third hispanic.