Newark, NJ police: no cop fired a shot in 2020; City credits de-escalation program

[TLK Valentine]

Newark police: No officer fired a single shot in 2020, thanks to de-escalation program

Ambrose says not one police officer fired a weapon in 2020. He credits a de-escalation program implemented in Newark two years go.
"These things, it takes time for it to work. And I think it worked," Ambrose says.
Overall crime was down 6% this year. The city saw 51 homicides, the same as 2019. Non-fatal shootings were up in the city, and 61 of them had multiple victims.
But more guns were taken off the streets. Police officers recovered 496 illegal firearms, a 7% increase over last year when officers took 461 illegal weapons off the street.
"I'm proud of the men and women of Newark police division who took the guns off the street this year. Didn't fire a shot, came to work during a pandemic, arrested people with guns during the pandemic," Ambrose says.

At first I was ready to chalk it up to COVID, but when the biggest (and one of the roughest) cities in New Jersey goes a whole year without the cops shooting at someone, that's an accomplishment.

Thoughts?

 

[Ophiolite]

Thoughts?

Granted this is only the fourth day of the New Year, but this is the best news I've heard thus far. It is to be hoped that other police forces will learn from this.

 

[NerdGirl]

Thoughts?

Anytime any city can go a year with no police having to fire a gun, and the crime rate going down, that sounds like a win. Long as they aren't taking the route of some other cities, where police are being told to ignore crime, and DA's are being told not to prosecute criminals, thus the "crime rate" is lower on paper, but not in actuality. I trust that's not the case here, so well done, Newark!