Cops in N.J. would get $59M to spend on body cameras as bill advances
Gov. Phil Murphy said he wouldn't sign a bill requiring police to use cameras without more funding.
Body Cam Dance in NJ continues
- Thread starter NYShoreGuy
- Start date
Body cams should be mandatory. The problem in NJ is that there is an overabundance of municipalities and police departments. Body cams is not the only cost. There is the big expense for cloud storage for vast amounts of video that must be factored in which makes it too cost prohibitive for many small departments. Time for the politicians in this state to be creative and give up power for the common good. Consolidation of municipalities into regions should be the next step.
True and NJ taxes are so high as it is. Can taxpayers and municipalities handle the significant additional expense at a time when tax revenues will be down due to Covid? Answer is cutting other programs which will never happen and getting towns to share resources more.
Anyone whoever listened to Jim Gearhart 101.5FM in the last 25 years or so knows he has been railing against "home rule" forever.
Another great example where politicians could care less about the public. Keep your home rule and pay the highest property taxes in the country.
CBA’s are very tricky no doubt. However, if there is political will, you get rid of the department as a whole. All officers are fired and then must be rehired in the new entity. This is essentially what happened in Camden. All Camden Police Department officers lost their jobs. They then had to apply to Camden Regional police department.
The unions are not really the problem in regionalization. It’s the people.
True regionalization would include the school systems which make up minimum 50% of property tax bill. Then you get many people who resist by saying I don’t want my kid going to school with those other people. This is the biggest hurdle. Not the unions.
Oh the people are definitely the problem, particularly where the schools are concerned, with racial and home-rule issues. As far as policing goes, I have had many cops oppose regionalization, because "you wanna wait 20 minutes for police to respond?" The high-earning cops in the toney suburbs, and the superintendents making $200K want to keep their cash cows, and don't want to risk being the victim of duplication of services.
The wanna wait 20 minutes for service is such a bs argument. There is still no political will for this. I live in Caldwell. Why in the world is there a West Caldwell and a North Caldwell? Each has their own police department and munipcal buildings. West and Caldwell does share a high school. Three towns in a small geographic area. It is absurd.
Actually lived in WC for 12 years and agree it made no sense. The 20 minutes is BS; it’s the administrative cost and control concerns.
Well I have to admit Caldwell taxes are way cheaper than Montclair where I moved from.
Montclair is brutal (usually around top 10 in the state for property taxes.) Have a client who renovated a house there (4BR Colonial) and he was paying $36k annually which is nuts. In NJ we have become accustomed to taxes at $12-$15K minimum which is a bad starting point. I am in Morris County for now (probably not much longer) and pay $13,500. You look in so many other areas and talk to people and they think we are nuts for paying such high taxes. Have lots of family in the burbs outside of Philly who complain about $6K per yr in property taxes and my daughter lives outside of Boston and they are even paying less than Jersey for similar homes (probably about $3-$4k less on average).
Lots of people in Montclair with more money than brains, "gladly" paying taxes as long as they get the woke government they want.
I have to say Montclair is a phenomenal town. If I had the money to stay there, I would. I think it offers everything that I would want in town and I am glad that I had the opportunity to live there for 6 years. Last year I was routinely getting out bid for homes. The last home I bid on I offered $65,000 more than asking and I wasn't even close to getting the house. It went for over $125,00 over asking. This year it has gotten way worse. Just a month ago, a house was listed for $800k and went for $1.2 million. And yes the property taxes are insane there.
I am now a 7 minute Uber ride to downtown Montclair. I am perfectly fine with Caldwell which by the way has way better pizza than Montclair.
I’m guessing most of the places that we used to eat at in the Caldwel‘ls are probably closed or have new ownership now. But always a great place to get a good meal and it felt like a community.
Thinking you could share one superintendent of schools as well. I believe but don’t quote me we have 1552 in nj. So funny I remember one per county. Average salary per 150,000 do the numbers? 232 million on superintendents of the schools. Think about using that money to actually help kids.
I lived my whole life in Montclair, don’t regret any of my time living there. Moved three years ago to Wayne and saved almost $12,000 a year in taxes. Bought a small place at the shore and still up $7,500. Montclair spends $14,000 per year per student for public school. In the 3 years since I left my taxes at my old house went up $7,000. Unfortunately I expect to see a down turn, what goes up must come down.
