There was quite the building-up of expectations for yesterday’s presentation on public safety in Trenton by Mayor Eric Jackson. Expectations created and managed by Mr. Jackson and his Administration. A Monday headline in the Trentonian proclaimed, “Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson to take drastic measures against violence.” In the article under that headline, Mr. Jackson sure talked a good game. He was quoted in the piece by David Foster as saying, “In lieu of just coming out and saying what we the city are doing to combat this spike in violence — specifically shootings — I’m going to take a different approach. I need to come with something that I think will help create a systemic change.” [Emphasis mine – KM]
It sure sounded like he was casting a wide net of people to consult in coming up with his new approach. In that same article, we read “On Friday morning [September 16], Jackson met with State Sen. Shirley Turner, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, Assemblywoman Liz Muoio, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, interim Trenton Public Schools Superintendent Lucy Feria, and Mercer County Sheriff Jack Kemler, as well as representatives from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, State Police, Trenton police and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.”
That sure sounded like he was canvassing a lot of the relevant players in city, county and state governments to devise a plan that would have an immediate, meaningful impact on the City’s recent rash of violent, and often particularly brutal, crime. Mr. Foster put the situation in context: “So far this year, there have been 21 homicides in the city with the latest coming on Sunday afternoon. In that killing, 19-year-old Lance Beckett was shot numerous times and witnesses said they saw a man stomp on the victim’s head as he lay dead on the ground.”
The City’s murder rate for 2016, always a bellwether metric for the other categories of violence, is on track to reach close to 30, if the current pace continues and Mr. Jackson is unsuccessful in finding his “different approach.” That number of slain would be nearly twice as much as last year’s 17 violent deaths, which was itself closer to the long-term 30-year average from 1985-2015 of 18. To reach the threshold of 30 murders this year would take us back to the bad old days of 2013 and 2014, which saw the nauseating totals of 37 and 34 for those two years.
Last year’s reduction in the murder gave Trentonians some evidence that new leadership in the City and new resources in Public Safety, such as Federal grants to hire new officers for the city’s Police Department, was finally having an effect. This latest upswing in 2016, which over the last couple of weeks have included incidents such as Lance Beckett’s death as well as one hectic night last week in which no fewer than six people were shot in a span of only twelve minutes. So, with all that as context, it’s more than a little disappointing to write that what we got from the Mayor yesterday didn’t add up to very much, at all.
In the Trenton Times, an article by Greg Wright reports “A bevy of local political and community leaders came together in front of a city firehouse Tuesday to announce a new plan for confronting the deadly gun violence that spiked within Trenton in recent weeks.”
Now, the word “plan” has, in the context of Trenton’s public safety problems, been thrown around a lot in the last couple of weeks. Last week, in the absence of any action by Mr. Jackson, At-Large City Council Member Duncan Harrison convened his own press conference to discuss his “plan” to specifically address the violent acts committed with guns that drive Trenton’s crime rate up. Mr. Harrison presented many ideas, several of them worth of serious consideration. The main points of his strategy, as also reported by Greg Wright: “Harrison called for the city to take four steps to reduce violent crime: 30 new police officers; 100 new surveillance cameras; 500 streetlights; and an expansion of the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system.” Good ideas, Mr. Harrison. But not really a “plan.” In my mind, a Plan consists of an Idea, plus a credible path to turning that idea into reality. An idea needs resources of money and or manpower, and it needs a timetable for making it happen. A Plan = Idea + Resources + Calendar.
Mr. Harrison had some good ideas, but they were nowhere near implementation. As Mr. Wright reported last week, “Few doubt that these measures would lower violent crime, but there is a large funding hurdle for the proposal to overcome. Harrison said he anticipates that the money could be made available through capital funding, a Community Development Block Grant and the city’s general operations budget. He estimates the total costs somewhere between $500,000 and $700,000. Officials at City Hall say that those estimates are too low and point out that hiring 30 new officers would cost around $1.8 million after medical benefits… Harrison said that his proposal is not yet fully developed and that he would have more details in the future.” [Emphasis mine – KM]
I felt the same way reading the account of yesterday’s press conference. Mayor Jackson and others had some good ideas, but it’s nowhere near a “plan” ready to be implemented. It’s not “drastic,” as the Monday headline in the Trentonian teased (The Trentonian, teasing, you say? Unheard of!). It sure doesn’t sound like the “different approach” suggested by the Mayor, nor does it look to provide the “systemic change” he also said the City needs. And is certainly not “bold,” the description given by Councilman Harrison at yesterday’s event.
So what does the Administration intend to do?
The most immediate and tangible measure on tap, according to City Police Director Ernest Parrey, is to concentrate on six “hot spots” of activity in the City, and target them for close attention. “We will light those areas up,” said the Director. Although this kind of action will certainly be welcome in the areas involved, and are likely to result in some immediate results, the action seems conventional, strictly tactical, and not likely to have a long-term impact on city crime statistics. Activity in six targeted areas will likely move to other, less-covered areas, as it has in the past. Criminal activity doesn’t usually have a fixed base; bad guys finding their usual areas “lit up” can easily move back into the darkness, unfortunately.
Another specific proposal, with the prospect of new resources, came from the Acting Mercer County Prosecutor, Angelo Onofri. According to Mr. Wright, the Prosecutor “announced the availability of money for the school district to hire truancy officers to aid in increasing school attendance in city schools.”
But, oddly, the Interim Superintendent of Trenton’s School District, who attended the event, responded by basically saying “Thanks, but No Thanks.” The Times reported, “Interim Superintendent of Schools Lucy Feria was grateful for the announcement, but said that she only wants to use truancy officers a last option. She prefers the school take ownership of truancy rates by identifying which children are chronically absent, why they are absent and then take steps to solve that problem. Feria said that all city schools are working on individual plans, similar to the one in place at Hedgepeth-Williams Middle School, to reduce absentee rates.” [Emphasis added – KM]
That strikes kind of an off note to the account of yesterday’s event. With the “bevy” of officials and community leaders on hand, the underlying message of such an occasion was surely intended by the Mayor to be one of unity of purpose and plan. The press account describes an event, and the underlying initiative the event was called to promote, that was kind of unfocused and all over the map. Along with the proposal to “light up” those six areas, and the truant officer funding that Ms. Feria is definitely cool to, we heard about a police outreach effort in the schools, sending officers to meet with students and “have conversations about the perception of officers amongst community members, saying police and the community need to be on the same team.” We also heard appeals from several speakers to community members to speak up and report crimes when they see them, to step up and be counted when attempting to bring criminals to justice. State Senator Shirley Turner said, “”Say something if you see something.”
Drastic? Bold? To be honest, not really. Is this all even a plan? There again, I don’t think so. From the Times: “After the conference, Mayor Jackson acknowledged that funding for law enforcement and various initiatives the city would like to implement or expand is an issue. He said the city needs to bring in more tax revenue through economic development, but also needs more grant funding and aid from state legislators and the governor’s office” [Emphasis added- KM].
So, just as we saw at Mr. Harrison’s press conference, we heard ideas and proposals, but without a credible path to implementing them, without Resources, without a Calendar, we simply Do Not Have A Plan. What we have is earnest expressions of compassion with the citizens of Trenton, and frustration with the existing situation, but not much more than that.
This is what we waited to hear the Mayor say, during those weeks when the shootings and the deaths ramped up to critical numbers? This is what the Mayor spent a lot of time and energy to say to us about “a situation he calls ‘unsettling’ and ‘unnerving?’ ”
Mr. Jackson’s overall message yesterday was summarized in his statement that “There is no option we are not going to look at.” Unfortunately, when I read that in the paper, I heard “There are no option that we have yet decided to concentrate on.” I am afraid that the soft, unfocused presentation we heard yesterday will result in soft, unfocused results.
You may notice that my description of the Mayor’s proposals came exclusively from a press account in the Times. That’s entirely due to the fact that as of this Wednesday afternoon, more than 24 hours after this press conference, there is nothing on the City’s website that details the Mayor’s proposals or those of the rest of his Administration. No press release, no charts, no timetables, no list of bullet points. There is a press release advertising yesterday’s event, but nothing after. No followup of any kind. Nada. Zilch. I find that highly disappointing.
Even Tony Mack, with his so-called “Comprehensive Crime Initiative” of 2012, a stillborn plan that failed primarily because he failed to involve anyone else – including those departments and individuals who would have been charged with actually implementing his proposals – with creating the plan; EVEN TONY MACK!!! published his plan on the City website for all to see.
Where’s Eric Jackson’s Proposal? I shudder to think that, at roughly the same point in his Administration that Eric Jackson is now, Tony Mack was more disciplined and productive in his messaging and communications with the public!
I think referencing Mack’s “Comprehensive Plan” from four years ago serves another purpose. I think it shows that we have, over the last half dozen years and more, become so accustomed to progressively poorer results and performance from our City government, that our expectations have also sunk lower and lower. We are likely to judge the effectiveness of this current Administration and Council more on the basis of their good intentions and empty acts of political theater such as we saw yesterday; and less on any real results and progress, which we are coming to believe we are unlikely to see.
But ideas are not enough. Impassioned cries of “There is no option we are not going to look at” don’t cut it. We need a Plan, not platitudes. People are dying in Trenton, while this Administration struggles to find their direction forward.
If this Mayor and Council do not understand the difference between Ideas and Plans, then we need a new Mayor and Council.