How the city of Camden changed its approach to policing : The Indicator from Planet Money The city of Camden, New Jersey is cited as an example of how cities can change their approach to policing. But the story of Camden and its cops isn't a simple one.

A Tale Of Two Camdens

A Tale Of Two Camdens

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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Camden County Police Department officer Louis Sanchez is seen on foot patrol in Camden, New Jersey, on May 24, 2017. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Camden is a city of 70,000 people in Southern New Jersey. A few years ago, it had one of the highest rates of crime in the country. And its police department was notoriously corrupt.

So in 2013, Camden, New Jersey defunded its police. The county dissolved the police department and rebuilt it from scratch. Since then, crime has plummeted, police-community relations have drastically improved and many cities in the U.S. are now looking to Camden as a model for how to improve their own police departments.

Still, many residents of Camden say the numbers aren't telling the whole story. Today on the Indicator, we look at what happened in the city of Camden, what changed and what didn't.

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