Atlantic City to debut new technology to combat crime, fix city issues

ATLANTIC CITY — Two technologies that have helped major cities combat crime and better manage municipal services are about to debut here, state and local officials said at a symposium Wednesday at Stockton University's City Campus.

"Both programs have an emphasis on accountability," said Rob Long, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs, which has oversight of the city under the state takeover.

The DCA is partnering with Stockton, the city government and its Police Department in bringing the CitiStat and CompStat programs to the city, Long said.

The CitiStat system will allow residents and others to report potholes, streetlights that don't work, trash collection and code enforcement issues, and more.

City department heads and other workers will meet with the public biweekly to report on progress made under the program.

The first meeting will be Nov. 16 at Stockton's City Campus, in the Fannie Lou Hamer Room. The time will be announced on the city's website, according to officials.

Jacqueline Suarez, head of Local Government Services for the DCA, said she has repeatedly heard residents, visitors and business owners ask for one thing: Make Atlantic City clean and safe.

"It's the mantra from everybody," Suarez said, adding the programs will help to achieve a cleaner, safer city.

CitiStat debuted in Baltimore, Long said, where it produced dramatic improvements in city services and efficiency.

The CompStat system, pioneered by the New York City Police Department, will provide data collection and analysis so Atlantic City police can better prevent and combat crime.

"It holds police managers accountable for subordinates' performance," Long said, and helps determine where to deploy forces to reduce and prevent criminal activity.

The city has been using Risk Terrain Modeling, developed by Rutgers University, since 2017 to analyze crime patterns and determine crime hot spots. It also is using the ProPhoenix public safety software program to provide the information and statistics for CompStat to be successful, according to the DCA.

CitiStat and CompStat will debut along with a new police deployment plan, Suarez said.

Acting police Chief James Sarkos said the new deployment system will start in February and will maximize the visibility of police, increase the number of neighborhood coordination officers assigned to neighborhoods and move the force from eight-hour shifts to 11-hour shifts.

"The goal is higher visibility," Sarkos said. He is working with the state to get grants for additional officers, especially for the NCO program.

The new technologies will be helped by security cameras that will soon be placed in all city neighborhoods, paid for with new state funding, and the ShotSpotter gunshot-audio detection system already in use, Suarez said.

And the city will soon install license plate readers at all entrances and exits, to alert police of stolen vehicles coming into town or vehicles owned by people with outstanding warrants.

PBA President Jules Schwenger said after the meeting she is hopeful the new programs will be a positive development, but she is concerned about staffing levels.

She said the force is now at 257 officers, and often loses officers to other departments. It needs to be at about 330, she said.

Stockton professor and dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Marissa Levy, who has worked with the NYPD, has been working with the Atlantic City Police Department for the past few months on how to best use CompStat, she said.

"CompStat is about accountability, from the officer on the street through the chain of command and finally with the chief who is accountable to the citizens," Levy said. "It allows an interactive process."

Levy said in New York it was credited with reducing crime 50% to 60% and has been used in police departments around the world.

Lt. Kevin Fair gave a brief glimpse of the CompStat program, using city data.

Calls for service are up 22% year-to-date over the same period last year, the program showed.

He also showed report pages that included heat maps for various types of criminal activity for the previous two weeks, service calls by type, and breakdowns showing what hours of the day and what days of the week generate the most police calls.

While Fridays and Saturdays generated somewhat more calls, it wasn't drastically more than on every other day, according to the report.

It also tracks which types of crimes are increasing and which are decreasing. Shoplifting increased by 36% over the previous two weeks, and motor vehicle thefts decreased from eight to two during that time, the report showed.

Wednesday's event drew a mix of police and other city workers, and city and state officials, a combination that in one instance led to political fireworks.

That occurred when Mayor Marty Small Sr. used his podium time for a 10-minute rebuke of state Sen. Vince Polistina, R-Atlantic, over Polistina's criticisms of the city's lack of safety and cleanliness.

Polistina, who was in attendance, had recently sent a letter to Small, which he made public, accusing Small of making their disagreements over governing into a personal vendetta. Polistina also further criticized Small's leadership in that letter.

Small has repeatedly accused Polistina of being behind a successful petition drive to move to nonpartisan elections, a charge Polistina denies.

The question regarding a change from partisan elections will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.