Issue Position: Protecting Our Communities

Issue Position

"When a new mayor, Cory Booker, got elected he did something very bold. What he did was that he promised to prioritize public safety. He promised the people of Newark that he would make the city safe and he staked his personal reputation and credibility on doing so. What is unbelievable, and truly what I would consider a miracle of government, is that today we sit here and Newark is a safer city. By all accounts Newark now leads our country in reductions in violent crime."
-Former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram
October 25, 2010

My time as Mayor has taught me that we will never arrest our way out of New Jersey's crime problem.

There will be a ceiling to our progress as long as economic opportunity is scarce, poverty is abundant, quality public education elusive, illegal guns are readily available, drug laws and enforcement priorities remain misguided, our justice system and prisons continue to put the warehousing of human potential before rehabilitation, and we as a society fail to treat crime as the multi-dimensional societal ill that it truly is.

The story of our crime fighting efforts in Newark has been one of constantly pushing against this ceiling.

Yes, we have driven down murders, rape, aggravated assault, theft, auto theft, and shootings, even when taking into account more recent spikes in crime. In 2010 Newark went a full calendar month without a murder for the first time since 1966, and saw 43 days without a murder in 2008, which was the longest such stretch since 1961.

But it is hard to take any bit of comfort in that progress when one homicide is one too many, and when there are still so many mothers grieving over lost children. It is even more difficult when you know that common-sense reforms to federal gun laws, smarter and more robust investment in education and anti-poverty programs, and a justice system that doesn't produce three-year recidivism rates of over 50 percent in New Jersey, may have prevented the tragedies we see everyday.

As your Senator, these will be some of my priorities to help protect our communities:

Passing Common Sense Gun Safety Legislation

It is plainly unacceptable that we don't have background checks for every gun sale in America, as well as bans on high capacity magazines and assault weapons that have no practical sporting use, and countless other reforms that will save lives.

As Mayor, I did all I could to fight against gun violence:

*I was deeply involved with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a coalition of mayors dedicated to bringing sanity to our gun laws;
*I focused my police department's efforts and resources on gun crime;
*I attracted private philanthropy to invest in cutting edge technology like an acoustic gunshot detection system;
*I even travelled to Washington DC to personally appeal to the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives for law enforcement access to crime gun trace data so that my department, and departments across New Jersey, could do more to understand and battle against gun trafficking.

But now I know that to better protect Newark, other New Jersey cities, and our suburbs and rural areas (which are experiencing more and more gun violence), the fight is in Congress.

Congress had the chance to get this right in the wake of Newtown. If elected to the Senate, I will start work on common sense gun reform on day one.

Reforming the Criminal Justice System

Our criminal justice system is broken. New Jersey's prison population increased by 328% between 1980 and 2011, burdening taxpayers with billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs, and destabilizing countless families and communities. And that incarceration isn't working: 55% of those who go to state prison are rearrested within three years.

In Newark, we didn't wait for the state or federal government to get their act together:

*We launched ex-offender reentry programs that drove down recidivism rates;
*We created a youth court, community court, and veterans court -- the community court and veterans court are the first of their kind in the state, designed to connect low level offenders with specialized resources to reduce recidivism and better protect our neighborhoods.
*We expanded mentoring programs, youth programing, recreation spaces, and youth employment opportunities to engage our kids in constructive activities that lead to productive pathways, not prison.

We must do more to fix our cycle of arrest and re-arrest, and invest in money-saving, human potential saving, reforms.

Putting more first responders on our streets

As an executive serving during the deepest economic downturn this nation has endured in generations, I did all I could to protect the ranks of my fire and police departments, and funding for emergency medical services.

But it wasn't enough. Like most localities in New Jersey, and like so many across the country, we watched our ranks dwindle even as we searched for new revenue and cut everywhere else first.

I witnessed firsthand the importance of federal support for local emergency services, and as your Senator will work to better fund Assistance to Firefighters (AFG) grants, Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants, Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants, and do all I can to support the first responders who protect us.

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